Oral microbiome alterations in epilepsy and after seizure control

Xiaolei Lian; Zhenguo Liu; Tianwen Wu; Jiamin Lou; Yuan Chen; Shanshuo Liu; Limin Jin; Shuang Li; Yajun Lian; Yan Jiang; Zhigang Ren

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1277022

Oral microbiome alterations in epilepsy and after seizure control

Front Microbiol. 2023 Nov 29:14:1277022. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1277022. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xiaolei Lian^#^{1

2}, Zhenguo Liu^#^{3

4}, Tianwen Wu¹, Jiamin Lou⁴, Yuan Chen¹, Shanshuo Liu⁴, Limin Jin¹, Shuang Li¹, Yajun Lian¹, Yan Jiang¹, Zhigang Ren⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
² The Academy of Medical Sciences of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Viral Hepatitis Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: The existing diagnostic methods of epilepsy such as history collection and electroencephalogram have great limitations in practice, so more reliable and less difficult diagnostic methods are needed.

Methods: By characterizing oral microbiota in patients diagnosed with epilepsy (EPs) and patients whose seizures were under control (EPRs), we sought to discover biomarkers for different disease states. 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed on 480 tongue swabs [157 EPs, 22 EPRs, and 301 healthy controls (HCs)].

Results: Compared with normal individuals, patients with epilepsy exhibit increased alpha diversity in their oral microbiota, and the oral microbial communities of the two groups demonstrate significant beta diversity differences. EPs exhibit a significant increase in the abundance of 26 genera, including Streptococcus, Granulicatella, and Kluyvera, while the abundance of 14 genera, including Peptostreptococcus, Neisseria, and Schaalia, is significantly reduced. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of oral microbial markers in the training cohort and validation cohort was 98.85% and 97.23%, respectively. Importantly, the AUC of the biomarker set achieved 92.44% of additional independent validation sets. In addition, EPRs also have their own unique oral community.

Conclusion: This study describes the characterization of the oral microbiome in EP and EPR and demonstrates the potential of the specific microbiome as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for epilepsy.

Keywords: diagnostic model; epilepsy; oral microbiome; receiver operating characteristic curve; seizure control.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was sponsored by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFC2303100), Key Project of Henan Provincial Natural Science Foundation (HNSZRKXJJZDXM2023019), Central Plains Talent Program-Central Plains Youth Top Talents, Young and Middle-aged Academic Leaders of Henan Provincial Health Commission (HNSWJW-2022013).