Composition of the Oral Microbiome in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

Introduction: Distinct microbial communities reside in the oral cavity and the composition of the oral microbiota has important implications for human health and disease. Identification of bacterial flora of the microbiome is done by metagenomic analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA sequences. Aim: The aim of this study was to characterise the human microbiome in patients with Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) in comparison with the normal human microbiome. Materials and Methods: A pilot study was carried out in tertiary hospital, Chennai. Oral mouthwash samples collected from nine patients with CAD were selected, with one control group. They were studied by metagenomic analysis of V3-V4 region of 16SrRNA gene sequences.. Sequencing of the variable V3 and V4 regions was done using Illumina platform. Results: The six major phyla, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Spirochaetes, and Fusobacteriacontained 99% of the taxa in all the samples analysed. Conclusion: Diversity of the microbiome in patients with CAD was similar to the normal human microbiome.