Dental caries as a risk factor for bacterial blood stream infection (BSI) in children undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT)Original paper
Karen Pendergrass is a microbiome researcher specializing in microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs). She systematically analyzes scientific literature to identify microbial patterns, develop hypotheses, and validate interventions. As the founder of the Microbiome Signatures Database, she bridges microbiome research with clinical practice. In 2012, based on her own investigative research, she became the first documented case of FMT for Celiac Disease, four years before the first published case study.
Read MoreWhat was studied?
Researchers examined whether dental caries risk predicts bacterial blood stream infection (BSI) in 41 pediatric hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) patients, ages 8 months to 25 years. Patients with recent dental restorations or untreated decay were classified as high caries risk (HCR); others as low caries risk (LCR).
How was it studied?
Fisher's exact test and multivariate logistic regression tested the association between caries risk and BSI, controlling for age and mucositis severity. In a subset of four HCR and four LCR children, plaque and saliva swabs collected after pretransplant conditioning underwent 16S rRNA sequencing, with LEfSe used to identify differentially abundant taxa.
What did they find?
Caries risk was significantly associated with BSI (p < 0.035), and HCR children were 21 times more likely to develop BSI, independent of age or mucositis severity. HCR subjects showed significantly reduced oral microbial alpha diversity, with the order Lactobacillales (which includes Streptococcus and Lactobacillus) enriched compared to LCR subjects.
Why it matters
The findings suggest a cariogenic oral microbiome may raise BSI risk in pediatric HCT patients, supporting dental caries screening as a potential risk-reduction strategy before transplant. The authors note further metagenomic work is needed to clarify how caries-related microbial shifts around conditioning influence outcomes like BSI.