Oral-oropharyngeal microbiome in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Autoimmune reaction occurs in the lower airway prior to the development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We investigated the association between lung microbiome and the development of RA by analyzing the oral-oropharyngeal (OOP) microbiome, which is similar to the lung microbiome. OOP lavages from 47 treatment-naive RA patients and 47 non-RA controls underwent shotgun metagenomic analysis to explore associations with microbiome in relation to disease development.