Assessing the effect of tobacco-consumption on oral microbiome in healthy and oral cancer patients

Oral cancer is a globally widespread cancer that features among the three most prevalent cancers in India. The risk of oral cancer is elevated by factors such as tobacco consumption, betel-quid chewing, excessive alcohol consumption, unhygienic oral condition, sustained viral infections and also due to dysbiosis in microbiome composition of oral cavity. Here, we performed an oral microbiome study of healthy and oral cancer patients to decipher the microbial dysbiosis due to the consumption of tobacco-based products, and also revealed the tobacco-associated microbiome. The analysis of 196 oral microbiome samples from three different oral sites of 32 healthy and 34 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients indicated health status, site of sampling, and tobacco-consumption as significant covariates associated with oral microbiome composition