A gram-negative oral commensal anaerobe that has been linked to a variety of GI problems, including inflammatory bowel disease, appendicitis, and GI malignancies is called Fusobacterium nucleatum. The oral cavity is home to a wide variety of Fusobacterium, and F. nucleatum in the GI tract is thought to have originated there. It’s unclear whether all oral Fusobacterium translocate to GI locations with the same efficiency. For a study, the researchers magnified 16S rRNA genes of F. nucleatum and F. periodontium, from matched saliva, gastric aspirates, colon or ileal pouch aspirates, and saliva alone from three patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and three healthy controls, as well as saliva alone from seven patients with either active IBD or IBD in remission. The findings show that the composition of the fusobacterial population varies more between the oral and gastrointestinal tracts than between individuals. With specific nodes/strains enriched in the GI tract and others decreased after translocation, the oral communities show the most variety and have the biggest pool of unique sequences. Due to selective pressure in the GI system, the gastric and colon/pouch communities have less variety and are more closely related. The selective transfer of oral fusobacteria to the GI tract is revealed in this work. The identification of specific transmissible clones will make it easier to determine the risk of getting Fusobacterium-related GI problems.
Link:www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19490976.2020.1814120
