Reimagining the Oral and Systemic Health Connection

 do you know how oral pathogens affect your health? The spinning body should include the person's head

Team - Oracle: The Future of Dental Diagnostics

The impact that oral health has on overall systemic health is significant and well known in the medical community. Here are some fast facts on how oral pathogens might affect you and your family:

  • Oral pathogens create a 2-5x increase in the risk of stroke – American Heart Association
  • They cause a 1.7x increase in the risk of colon cancer – Colon Cancer Society
  • Are linked to a 3x increase in the incidence of pre-term birth (birth prior to 37 weeks of gestation) – ACOG

Not only that, but these pathogens have been found in blood clots from strokes, colon tumors, and placentas of babies born pre-term. Do we have your attention? Well, these systemic diseases are only a few of the inflammatory diseases triggered and exacerbated by oral pathogens.

Oracle Team

Periodontitis

The oral microbiome is complex, and shifts in
the abundances of several types of bacteria can lead to periodontitis (Di Stefano et al., 2022). Even in low abundances, P. gingivalis
can influence the composition of the rest of the microbiome in ways that lead to inflammation and periodontal bone loss by exploiting the host immune system (Hajishengallis et al., 2011)

Mucositis/Peri-implantitis

Peri-implant mucositis, and later, peri-implantitis, can develop when a biofilm forms around the implant. Disease progression corresponds with an increased diversity of the submucosal bacterial community and higher relative abundances of several pathogenic or pathogen-associated populations (Belibasakis and Manoil, 2021; Butera et al., 2022). Fortunately, mucositis and peri-implantitis plaque microbiomes can revert to healthy baselines with antibiotic and/or mechanical intervention (Bazzani et al., 2024).

Adverse pregnancy outcomes

Pregnancy is associated with decreased markers of periodontal health and changes in the oral microbiome. Associations have been made between maternal periodontitis and preterm birth, low birth weight, and preeclampsia (Ye and Kapila, 2021) (and sources within).

Diabetes

Diabetes exacerbates the likelihood and severity of periodontal disease (Graves et al., 2020), although this bidirectional relationship may also be affected by periodontal pathogens triggering the host immune system to activate proinflammatory responses (Tang et al., 2022).

Rheumatoid Arthritis

 Several studies have associated rheumatoid arthritis and periodontitis (Li et al., 2017), and P. gingivalis has been shown to produce specific peptides that trigger the host immune response in rheumatoid arthritis (Hitchon et al., 2010).

Colon Cancer

Studies investigating relationships between oral microbiota and cancer are predominantly correlative. Fusobacterium nucleatum has been associated with the progression of colorectal cancer, although somewhat inconsistently. P. gingivalis and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans are suggested to activate immune pathways that play roles in the development of pancreatic cancer, and P. gingivalis and Tannerella forsythia are associated with higher risks of esophageal cancer (Peters et al., 2017; Lee et al., 2021).

Endocarditis

The oral commensal bacterium Streptococcus sanguinis possesses virulence factors that allow it to migrate into the bloodstream, bind to the cardiac endothelium, and contribute to
infective endocarditis (Martini et al., 2020).

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Several oral bacterial taxa have been detected in lung mucosa of patients with COPD, and similar immune responses between periodontal disease and COPD suggest a common pathophysiology (Hobbins et al., 2017; Bourgeois et al., 2019).

Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Oral strains of Klebsiella are able to colonize the intestine and induce TH1 cells, leading to inflammation (Atarashi et al., 2017).

Oral Microbiome and Health

Oral Bacteria's Impact on Disease

Studies reveal oral bacteria's role in conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

Atarashi

Atarashi, K., Suda, W., Luo, C., Kawaguchi, T., Motoo, I., Narushima, S., et al. (2017). Ectopic colonization of oral bacteria in the intestine drives T H 1 cell induction and inflammation. Science 358,
359–365. doi: 10.1126/science.aan4526

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Bazzani

Bazzani, D., Heidrich, V., Manghi, P., Blanco-Miguez, A., Asnicar, F.,
Armanini, F., et al. (2024). Favorable subgingival plaque microbiome shifts are associated with clinical treatment for peri-implant diseases. Npj Biofilms Microbiomes 10, 12. doi: 10.1038/s41522-024-00482-z

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Belibasakis

Belibasakis, G. N., and Manoil, D. (2021). Microbial Community-Driven Etiopathogenesis of Peri-Implantitis. J. Dent. Res. 100, 21–28. doi: 10.1177/0022034520949851

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Bourgeois

Bourgeois, D., Inquimbert, C., Ottolenghi, L., and Carrouel, F. (2019). Periodontal Pathogens as Risk Factors of Cardiovascular Diseases, Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Cancer, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease—Is There Cause for Consideration? Microorganisms 7, 424. doi:
10.3390/microorganisms7100424

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Butera

Butera, A., Pascadopoli, M., Pellegrini, M., Gallo, S., Zampetti, P., and Scribante, A. (2022). Oral Microbiota in Patients with Peri-Implant Disease: A Narrative Review. Appl. Sci. 12, 3250. doi:
10.3390/app12073250

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Pathogens enter the body through the circulatory and digestive, systems creating permeable tissue and inflammation which leads to systemic disease

Team - Oracle: The Future of Dental Diagnostics
Oracle Team

    The Manner And Methods Of Systemic Disease Triggered By Oral Pathogens

  • Local Effects: Oral pathogens provoke inflammation and tissue destruction in the gums through cytokines (like IL-1B, IL-6, and TNF-a) and immune system modulation.
  • Systemic Spread: The bacteria or their components (like lipopolysaccharides) can enter the bloodstream, causing an inflammatory response that affects distant organs, including the heart, contributing to cardiovascular diseases and other systemic conditions such as diabetes.
  • Immune Dysregulation: Pathogens not only increase local inflammation but can also promote systemic dysregulation of immune responses, leading to chronic inflammatory conditions.

There have been over 5,000 papers published on the relationship between oral pathogens and systemic health over the past ~25 years – and many published prior to that. Here are a couple links to some of our favorites, if you’re interested in reading more.

But oral health is not treated as part of systemic health:

Different insurance

Different training program

Little overlap in treatment

Our platform leverages Next Generation Sequencing and Machine Learning to screen for oral pathogens, providing patient specific risk profiles and treatment recommendations - that enable better outcomes at lower cost for key inflammatory diseases that affect billionbs of people.

The process is simple:

SAMPLE COLLECTION

Collect a sample in office and ship it to our lab-takes 60 seconds

DNA PROCESSING

extract all DNA in a high throughput and automated process our sequencer reads over200m bps

BIOINFORMATICS

Our proprietary algorithms to determine disease state and affective interventions

Team - Oracle: The Future of Dental Diagnostics

Next Generation Sequencing

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) on the NextSeq 1000 is a powerful, versatile method that enables rapid, high-throughput sequencing of DNA or RNA, allowing for comprehensive genomic analysis. The NextSeq 1000 system is designed for efficiency and flexibility, catering to a variety of applications such as whole-genome sequencing, targeted gene panels, and transcriptome analysis. It uses Illumina’s sequencing by synthesis (SBS) technology, which is known for its accuracy and ability to generate high-quality data across a range of project scales. The NextSeq 1000 offers streamlined workflows, making it suitable for both research and clinical environments, where quick turnaround and precision are essential.

Oracle Team
Team - Oracle: The Future of Dental Diagnostics
Oracle Team

Machine Learning

Machine learning in a diagnostic algorithm based on the relative abundance of microbes leverages patterns within microbial data to assess disease risk and guide treatment recommendations. By analyzing the proportions of various microbes in a sample, the algorithm identifies which microbial compositions are linked to specific diseases states. This approach uses advanced models to account for microbial interactions and diversity, creating a robust and adaptive system that can improve diagnostic accuracy and personalize patient care. The model learns from each dataset for continual innovation in this space.