The human microbiome has been the focus of numerous research efforts to elucidate the pathogenesis of human diseases including cancer. Oral cancer mortality is high when compared with other cancers, as diagnosis often occurs during late stages. Its prevalence has increased in the USA over the past decade and accounts for over 40,000 new cancer patients each year. Additionally, oral cancer pathogenesis is not fully understood and is likely multifactorial. To unravel the relationships that are associated with the oral microbiome and their virulence factors, we used 16S rDNA and metagenomic sequencing to characterize the microbial composition and functional content in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tumor tissue, non-tumor tissue, and saliva from 18 OSCC patients. Results indicate a higher number of bacteria belonging to the Fusobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Firmicutes phyla associated with tumor tissue when compared with all other sample types. Additionally, saliva metaproteomics revealed a significant increase of Prevotella in five OSCC subjects, while Corynebacterium was mostly associated with ten healthy subjects. Lastly, we determined that there are adhesion and virulence factors associated with Streptococcus gordonii as well as from known oral pathogens belonging to the Fusobacterium genera found mostly in OSCC tissues. From these results, we propose that not only will the methods utilized in this study drastically improve OSCC diagnostics, but the organisms and specific virulence factors from the phyla detected in tumor tissue may be excellent biomarkers for characterizing disease progression.

人类微生物组一直是众多研究工作的重点，以阐明包括癌症在内的人类疾病的发病机制。与其他癌症相比，口腔癌的死亡率很高，因为诊断通常发生在晚期。在过去十年中，其在美国的患病率有所增加，每年有超过 40,000 名新的癌症患者。此外，口腔癌的发病机制尚不完全清楚，可能是多因素的。为了揭示与口腔微生物组及其毒力因子相关的关系，我们使用 16S rDNA 和宏基因组测序来表征口腔鳞状细胞癌 (OSCC) 肿瘤组织、非肿瘤组织和唾液中的微生物组成和功能含量。 18 名 OSCC 患者。结果表明属于梭杆菌的细菌数量较多，与所有其他样本类型相比，与肿瘤组织相关的拟杆菌门和厚壁菌门。此外，唾液元蛋白质组学显示显着增加5 名 OSCC 受试者中存在普氏菌，而棒状杆菌主要与 10 名健康受试者相关。最后，我们确定存在与戈登链球菌以及主要在 OSCC 组织中发现的属于梭杆菌属的已知口腔病原体相关的粘附和毒力因子。根据这些结果，我们提出，本研究中使用的方法不仅会显着改善 OSCC 的诊断，而且在肿瘤组织中检测到的来自门的生物体和特定毒力因子可能是表征疾病进展的优秀生物标志物。