Tongue microbiome in children with autism spectrum disorder

Ahmed Abdulhaq, Esam Halboub, Husham E. Homeida, Vinod Kumar Basode, Ahmad Hassn Ghzwani, Khalid Ammash Zain, Divyashri Baraniya, Tsute Chen, Nezar Noor Al-Hebshi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: A few recent studies have characterized the salivary microbiome in association with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Here, we sought to assess if there is an association between the tongue microbiome and ASD. Methods: Tongue scrapping samples were obtained from 25 children with ASD and 38 neurotypical controls. The samples were sequenced for the 16S rRNA gene (V1-V3) and the resultant high-quality reads were assigned to the species-level using our previously described BLASTn-based algorithm. Downstream analyses of microbial profiles were conducted using QIIME, LEfSe, and R. Results: Independent of grouping, Prevotella, Streptococcus, Leptotrichia, Veillonella, Haemophilus and Rothia accounted for > 60% of the average microbiome. Haemophilus parainfluenzae, Rothia mucilaginosa, Prevotella melaninogenica and Neisseria flavescens/subflava were the most abundant species. Species richness and diversity did not significantly differ between the study groups. Thirteen species and three genera were differentially abundant between the two groups, e.g. enrichment of Actinomyces odontolyticus and Actinomyces lingnae and depletion of Campylobacter concisus and Streptococcus vestibularis in the ASD group. However, none of them withstood adjustment for multiple comparisons. Conclusion: The tongue microbiome of children with ASD was not significantly different from that of healthy control children, which is largely consistent with results from the literature.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1936434
Pages (from-to)1936434
JournalJournal of Oral Microbiology
Volume13
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021

Keywords

  • Autism spectrum disorder
  • bacteria
  • high-throughput nucleotide sequencing
  • microbiota
  • mouth
  • tongue

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