AIM: Qat chewing has been reported to induce subgingival microbial shifts suggestive of prebiotic-like properties. The objective here was to assess the effect of qat chewing on a panel of classical and new putative periopathogens in health and periodontitis.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: 40 qat chewers and 40 nonchewers, equally stratified by periodontal health status, were recruited. Taqman, real-time PCR was used to quantify total bacteria, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, Treponema denticola, Parvimonas micra, Filifactor alocis, Synergistetes, and TM7s in pooled subgingival biofilm samples. Differences in microbial parameters between the study groups were analysed using ordinal regression.
RESULTS: In health, the qat chewers harboured significantly lower relative counts of P. gingivalis, T. forsythia, Synergistetes, and TM7s after adjustment for multiple comparisons (P ≤ 0.007). At nominal significance level, they also carried lower counts of TM7s and P. micra (P ≤ 0.05). In periodontitis, the chewers had lower counts of all taxa; however, only T. denticola withstood correction for multiple comparisons (P ≤ 0.0063).
CONCLUSIONS: Qat chewing is associated with lower proportions of periopathogens, particularly in subjects with healthy periodontium, which supports previous reports of its prebiotic-like properties. This potentially beneficial biological effect can be exploited by attempting to isolate the active fraction.
There are evidences that chronic oral infections are associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Periodontal disease is a common, mixed oral infection affecting the supporting structures around the teeth. It was reported that 75% of the adult population has gingivitis and 20% to 30% exhibits the severe destructive form of periodontitis. Although more than 500 bacterial species inhabit the human oral cavity, only a few Gram negative bacteria such as Prevotella intermedia, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythensis, Treponema denticola and Actinobacillus actinomycetamcomitans causes gingivitis and periodontitis. These periodontal pathogen occupy the subgingival space and organize as a bacterial biofilm. The bacterial biofilm will be in direct contact with host tissues along an ulcerated epithelial interface, called periodontal pocket. The break in the epithelial integrity directly exposes the host to bacteria and their products eg. lipopolysaccharide (LPS) endotoxin. (Copied from article).