Oral microbiota in youth with perinatally acquired HIV infection. human subgingival plaque

BackgroundMicrobially mediated oral diseases can signal underlying HIV/AIDS progression in HIVinfectedadults. The role of the oral microbiota in HIV-infected youth is not known. Wecompared oral microbiome levels and associations with caries or periodontitis in youthwith and without perinatal HIV infection.ResultsSpecies richness and alpha diversity differed little between PHIV and PHEU youth.Group differences in average counts met the significance threshold for six taxa; twoCorynebacterium species were lower in PHIV and met thresholds for noteworthiness.Several known periodontitis-associated organisms (Prevotella nigrescens, Tannerellaforsythia, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, and Filifactor alocis) exhibitedexpected associations with periodontitis in PHEU youth, associations not observed inPHIV youth. In both groups, odds of caries increased with counts of taxa in fourgenera, Streptococcus, Scardovia, Bifidobacterium, and Lactobacillus.ConclusionsThe microbiomes of PHIV and PHEU youth were similar, although PHIV youth seemedto have fewer "health"-associated taxa such as Corynebacterium species. Theseresults are consistent with the hypothesis that HIV infection, or its treatment, maycontribute to oral dysbiosis.