The key to arthritis management is early diagnosis and treatment to prevent further joint destruction and maximize functional ability. Osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are two common types of arthritis that the primary care provider must differentiate, in terms of diagnosis and treatment. Effective and non-invasive strategies for early detection and disease identification are sorely needed.

Growing evidence suggests that RA has a correlation with oral microbiome and may be affected by its dynamic variations. The Chinese group of Bin Chen has published on Scientific Reports1 an interesting evaluation of the oral cavity microbiome in 332 subjects. The study assessed the oral microbiome in saliva samples from 110 RA patients, 67 OA patients and 155 healthy subjects and identified several structural differences indicated as novel potential biomarkers for a non-invasive arthritis screening.

The result was the identification of eight oral bacterial biomarkers to differentiate rheumatoid arthritis from osteoarthritis, thus suggesting the possibility of using the oral microbiome test as an informative source for discovering non-invasive biomarkers for arthritis pathologies but also for screening of arthritis.

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Categories: DSF, Microbiota, Slab51