Analysis of the Salivary Microbiome in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome Patients

Oral microbiota plays an important role in oral and systemic diseases, while few reports referred to obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). Thus, this study aimed to explore the different salivary microbiome in patients with OSAS and controls.

Saliva was collected from 15 OSAS patients and nine healthy controls, and bacterial genomic DNA was extracted for 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing based on the Illumina platform.

The alpha and beta diversities were not significantly different between patients with OSAS and controls. The main phyla in the two groups were Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, and Fusobacteria, which accounted for 95% of the abundance. The main genera were Streptococcus, Rothia, Actinomyces, Prevotella, and Neisseria. Based on the genus and operational taxonomic units, Peptostreptococcus, Alloprevotella, and Granulicatella were enriched in controls, while only Scardovia species were significantly more abundant in patients with OSAS.

There was no significant difference in the relative abundance of bacteria between OSAS and controls. So, further studies will need to focus on the metagenome of bacteria in OSAS patients.