The Impact of Mouthwash on the Oropharyngeal Microbiota of Men Who Have Sex with Men: a Substudy of the OMEGA Trial

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Svetlana up on 2025-2-3

study design

randomized controlled trial

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

35019769

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1128/spectrum.01757-21

URI

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35019769/

Authors

Plummer EL, Maddaford K, Murray GL, Fairley CK, Pasricha S, Mu A, Bradshaw CS, Williamson DA, Chow EPF

Journal

Microbiology spectrum

Year

2022

Keywords:

Neisseria gonorrhoeae, men who have sex with men, mouthwash, oral microbiome, oropharyngeal gonorrhea

Mouthwash is a commonly used product and has been proposed as an alternative intervention to prevent gonorrhea transmission. However, the long-term effects of mouthwash on the oral microbiota are largely unknown. We investigated the impact of 12 weeks of daily mouthwash use on the oropharyngeal microbiota in a subset of men who have sex with men who participated in a randomized trial comparing the efficacy of two alcohol-free mouthwashes for the prevention of gonorrhea. We characterized the oropharyngeal microbiota using 16S rRNA gene sequencing of tonsillar fossae samples collected before and after 12 weeks of daily use of Listerine mouthwash or Biotène dry mouth oral rinse. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) was used to assess differences in oropharyngeal microbiota composition following mouthwash use. Differential abundance testing was performed using ALDEx2, with false-discovery rate correction. A total of 306 samples from 153 men were analyzed (Listerine, n = 78 and Biotène, n = 75). There was no difference in the overall structure of the oropharyngeal microbiota following Listerine or Biotène use (PERMANOVA P = 0.413 and P = 0.331, respectively). Although no bacterial taxa were significantly differentially abundant following Listerine use, we observed a small but significant decrease in the abundance of both Streptococcus and Leptotrichia following Biotène use. Overall, our findings suggest that daily use of antiseptic mouthwash has minimal long-term effects on the composition of the oropharyngeal microbiota. IMPORTANCE Given the role of the oral microbiota in human health, it is important to understand if and how external factors influence its composition. Mouthwash use is common in some populations, and the use of antiseptic mouthwash has been proposed as an alternative intervention to prevent gonorrhea transmission. However, the long-term effect of mouthwash use on the oral microbiota composition is largely unknown. We found that daily use of two different commercially available mouthwashes had limited long-term effects on the composition of the oropharyngeal microbiota over a 12-week period. The results from our study and prior studies highlight that different mouthwashes may differentially affect the oral microbiome composition and that further studies are needed to determine if mouthwash use induces short-term changes to the oral microbiota that may have detrimental effects.

Experiment 1

Edit History Delete

Flag for review

Your review change was submittedDuplicate this Experiment Add a new Signature

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Svetlana up on 2025-2-3

Curated date: 2024/03/18

Curator:

Revision editor(s):

Subjects

Location of subjects: Australia

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Tonsillar fossa Tonsillar bed,Tonsillar sinus,Tonsillar fossa,tonsillar fossa

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Gonorrhea Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection,chronic gonococcal infectious disease of lower genitourinary tract,chronic gonococcal infectious disease of upper genitourinary tract,Crosti-gianotti syndrome,Gianotti Crosti syndrome,acrodermatitis, infantile lichenoid,acrodermatitis, papular infantile,infections, Neisseria gonorrhoeae,papular acrodermatitis of childhood,Gonorrhea,gonorrhea

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Men who have sex with men using Biotène - 0 weeks

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Men who have sex with men using Biotène - 12 weeks

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: Men who have sex with men using Biotène - 12 weeks refers to those using Biotène mouthwash at 12 weeks, as a treatment for Gonorrhea

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 75

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 75

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: centered log-ratio

Statistical test: Mann-Whitney (Wilcoxon)

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: Yes

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: increased

Signature 1

Edit History Delete

Flag for review

Your review change was submitted

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Svetlana up on 2025-2-3

Curated date: 2024/03/18

Curator: Uhabiba14

Revision editor(s): Uhabiba14, KateRasheed, WikiWorks

Source: Fig. 3b

Description: Boxplots showing the center-log ratio (CLR) transformed relative abundance of bacteria that were differentially abundant following 12 weeks of mouthwash use with Biotène using ALDEx2 (Wilcoxon)

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in