Functional profile of oral plaque microbiome: Further insight into the bidirectional relationship between type 2 diabetes and periodontitisOriginal 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 the subgingival plaque microbiome in people with and without type 2 diabetes across varying periodontal conditions. They aimed to clarify the bidirectional relationship between periodontitis and diabetes.
How was it studied?
The team used high-resolution whole metagenomic shotgun sequencing to characterize both the composition and functional pathway profile of the subgingival microbiome, reconstructing metabolic pathway abundance directly from metagenomic data.
What did they find?
A set of metabolic pathways was significantly enriched in patients with periodontitis and/or diabetes, spanning branched and aromatic amino acid metabolism, fatty acid biosynthesis, adipocytokine signaling, ferroptosis and iron homeostasis, nucleotide metabolism, and peptidoglycan and lipopolysaccharide synthesis.
Why it matters
The findings support a model where endotoxemia and inflammatory cytokines from either disease alter innate immune cells via dysbiosis and the oral-gut axis. Enhanced ferroptosis and purine/pyrimidine imbalance offer new insight into this comorbidity.