16S rRNA Survey Reveals the Potential of Oral Microbiota in Distinguishing Patients with Chronic Heart Failure from Healthy Controls

Oral microbiota can reflect physiological functions and pathological conditions in human body. Patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) exhibit distinct oral health status compared to healthy controls (HCs), which is attributed to the differences in dominant microbial communities present in the oral cavity. Up to date, there are few studies examined the association between CHF and dominant oral microbiota. To fill in this research gap, this study aimed to investigate the differences of oral microbiota between CHF patients and HCs, to identify valuable novel biomarkers for CHF.

Methods

Chronic heart failure patients and healthy volunteers were recruited. Oral microbiota samples were then collected using oral swabs, and 16S rRNA sequencing was employed to analyze the microbiota. Statistical analysis was conducted to identify key bacteria at multiple taxonomic levels in the oral microbiota samples from both the CHF patient and healthy control groups, with a focus on core genera to identify potential biomarkers and evaluate their diagnostic efficacy.

Results

There were 60 CHF patients and 30 HCs were recruited, with 42 CHF patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class II-IV and 28 HCs were included in the final analysis. The alpha diversity was higher in HCs, while beta diversity was higher in CHF patients. The CHF patients showed significant differences from HCs at five gene (phylum, class, order, family and genus) levels by analyzing the relative richness of microbiota at different taxomal levels. Altogether 14 microbes could distinguish CHF patients from HCs, i.e., Abiotrophia , Butyrivibrio , Lactobacillus , Capnocytophaga and Neisseria which are more abundant in CHF patients, and Actinomyces , Anaerovorax , Eubacterium , Kingella , Mogibacterium , Peptococcus , Peptostreptococcus , Solobacterium and TM7_genus_incertae_sedis which are more abundant in HCs. Furthermore, the AUC of their combined diagnosis was 83.7% (95% confidential interval 74.1%–93.3%), which have high reliability for the diagnostic significance. In accordance to Spearman’s correlation, Eubacterium, Solobacterium and Rhizobium were core genera and the abundance of Eubacterium and Solobacterium exhibited downward trends as NYHA class increases.

Conclusion

This study revealed the dysbiosis of the oral microbiota in CHF patients and identified potential biomarkers for CHF diagnosis and management.