Oral and gut microbial biomarkers of susceptibility to respiratory tract infection in adults: A feasibility studyOriginal 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 asked whether baseline oral (saliva) and gut (stool) microbes could predict which healthy adults would later develop a respiratory tract infection (RTI). They compared 19 participants who went on to report RTI symptoms against 21 who stayed healthy.
How was it studied?
Two general practices recruited community adults who gave saliva and stool samples at baseline, during an RTI, and post-RTI. The team used 16S sequencing to profile microbial amplicon sequence variants, RT-PCR to detect common respiratory microbes, LEfSe to find differentially abundant taxa, and random forest modeling to rank biomarker importance.
What did they find?
Baseline saliva from future RTI cases showed more Streptococcus sobrinus and Megamonas, and less Lactobacillus salivarius, Synergistetes, Verrucomicrobia, and Dethiosulfovibrio. Streptococcus had the highest random forest importance score (4.13), and RT-PCR found more coagulase-negative Staphylococcus carriage in this group. In stool, LEfSe found more Veillonella, Rikenellaceae, Eggerthella, and less Desulfobulbus and Coprobacillus, with Sutterella scoring highest (4.73) for predictive importance.
Why it matters
The study shows it is feasible to recruit community adults for repeated oral-gut sampling around respiratory infections. It points to specific oral and gut taxa as candidate non-invasive biomarkers for identifying people more susceptible to respiratory infection before symptoms appear.