E-Cigarette Aerosol Exposure Favors the Growth and Colonization of Oral Streptococcus mutans Compared to Commensal Streptococci

E-cigarettes (e-cigs) have drastically increased in popularity during the last decade, especially among teenagers. While recent studies have started to explore the effect of e-cigs in the oral cavity, little is known about their effects on the oral microbiota and how they could affect oral health and potentially lead to disease, including periodontitis and head and neck cancers. To explore the impact of e-cigs on oral bacteria, we selected members of the genus Streptococcus, which are abundant in the oral cavity. We exposed the commensals Streptococcus sanguinis and Streptococcus gordonii and the opportunistic pathogen Streptococcus mutans, best known for causing dental caries, to e-liquids and e-cig aerosols with and without nicotine and with and without menthol flavoring and measured changes in growth patterns and biofilm formation. Our results demonstrate that e-cig aerosols hindered the growth of S. sanguinis and S. gordonii, while they did not affect the growth of S. mutans. We also show that e-cig aerosols significantly increased biofilm formation by S. mutans but did not affect the biofilm formation of the two commensals. We found that S. mutans exhibits higher hydrophobicity and coaggregation abilities along with higher attachment to OKF6 cells than S. sanguinis and S. gordonii. Therefore, our data suggest that e-cig aerosols have the potential to dysregulate oral bacterial homeostasis by suppressing the growth of commensals while enhancing the biofilm formation of the opportunistic pathogen S. mutans. This study highlights the importance of understanding the consequences of e-cig aerosol exposure on selected commensals and pathogenic species. Future studies modeling more complex communities will provide more insight into how e-cig aerosols and vaping affect the oral microbiota. IMPORTANCE Our study shows that e-cigarette aerosol exposure of selected bacteria known to be residents of the oral cavity hinders the growth of two streptococcal commensals while enhancing biofilm formation, hydrophobicity, and attachment for the pathogen S. mutans. These results indicate that e-cigarette vaping could open a niche for opportunistic bacteria such as S. mutans to colonize the oral cavity and affect oral health.