Patridge E, Gorakshakar A, Molusky MM, Ogundijo O, Janevski A, Julian C, Hu L, Vuyisich M, Banavar G. Microbial functional pathways based on metatranscriptomic profiling enable effective saliva-based health assessments for precision wellness.
Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2024;
23:834-842. [PMID:
38328005 PMCID:
PMC10847690 DOI:
10.1016/j.csbj.2024.01.018]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2023] [Revised: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 01/25/2024] [Indexed: 02/09/2024] Open
Abstract
It is increasingly recognized that an important step towards improving overall health is to accurately measure biomarkers of health from the molecular activities prevalent in the oral cavity. We present a general methodology for computationally quantifying the activity of microbial functional pathways using metatranscriptomic data. We describe their implementation as a collection of eight oral pathway scores using a large salivary sample dataset (n = 9350), and we evaluate score associations with oropharyngeal disease phenotypes within an unseen independent cohort (n = 14,129). Through this validation, we show that the relevant oral pathway scores are significantly worse in individuals with periodontal disease, acid reflux, and nicotine addiction, compared with controls. Given these associations, we make the case to use these oral pathway scores to provide molecular health insights from simple, non-invasive saliva samples, and as molecular endpoints for actionable interventions to address the associated conditions.
Collapse