Identification of oral microbial signatures in periodontitis and their relationship to cardiovascular disease

• Applicants: Privatdozentin Dr. Ghazal Aarabi; Professorin Dr. Katrin Hertrampf; Professor Dr. Arne Schäfer
• Subject Area: Dentistry, Oral Surgery
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 497528504

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are driven by hyperlipidemia and inflammation. Oral inflammatory diseases like periodontitis (PD), which usually affect large surface areas, have the potential to significantly contribute to the systemic effects of long-lasting inflammation. Correspondingly, an association between CVD and PD was reported, that is independent of the classical risk factors smoking and obesity. In our preliminary studies, we gave prove that PD is also associated with increased carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) and pulse wave velocity (PWV), and we showed this association independent of the CVD risk factors age, sex, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and type-2-diabetes. Microorganisms are able to enter the bloodstream during PD andmay trigger arterial inflammation. Factors that modulate CVD susceptibility may derive from individual microbial characteristics on the species or variety levels, or on the level of specific virulence factors. In order to identify these factors that may predict the onset and course of PD and increased CVD risk, we established two population representative cohorts in the framework of the NAKO health study. Both Level-3 projects, PAROCARD and MikroZahn collected medical information, supra- and subgingival plaque samples and saliva samples (Level-1) for microbiome analyses. Here, we propose to perform high-resolution metagenomic shotgun sequencing of the oral microbiota of 1,200 PD patients with or without CVD to (1) characterize functional differences of the genetic microbial composition such as bacteria, fungi, archaea, viruses, and protozoa, and to (2) identify single species and specific virulence genes that have remained undetected to date, and which correlate with characteristic disease manifestations. The results will contribute to an increased understanding of the causal role of oral inflammation in the pathogenesis of CVD and have the potential to identify microbial factors that specify increased CVD susceptibility.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Corinna Bang; Professor Dr. Christof Dörfer; Dr. Mohamed Mekhemar; Dr. Carolin Walther