Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Dec;185(6):983-991.
doi: 10.1007/s11046-020-00486-1. Epub 2020 Aug 27.

Oral Colonization by Candida Species in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Eliana Tomomi Shimabukuro da Cunha  1   2 , Lívia Mara Alves Figueiredo-Godoi  3 , Diogo Haddad Santos  2 , Rafael Paterno Castello Dias Carneiro  2 , Guilherme Sciascia do Olival  2 , Patrícia Pimentel de Barros  1 , Keila Narimatsu  2 , Charles Peter Tilbery  2   4 , Juliana Campos Junqueira  1
Affiliations

Oral Colonization by Candida Species in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Eliana Tomomi Shimabukuro da Cunha et al. Mycopathologia. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Introduction: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. Since immune system plays a key role in this disease, patients with MS can present higher risk of infections.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Candida spp. in the oral cavity of MS patients in relation to a control group METHODS: In total, 100 individuals were selected: 55 diagnosed with MS and 45 healthy individuals (control group). Saliva samples were collected and seeded in culture media selecting for Candida. Following an incubation period of 48 h, colony-forming units (CFU mL-1) were counted and colonies were isolated for Candida species identification by multiplex PCR. The results were analysed by chi-squared and Mann-Whitney U statistical tests considering a significance level of 5%.

Results: Candida spp. were confirmed in the oral cavity of 50.09% patients in the MS group and 35.55% individuals in the control group. In individuals positive for the growth of Candida spp., the median values of Candida colonies were 220 CFU mL-1 for the MS group and 120 CFU mL-1 for the control group. However, no statistically significant differences were observed between groups for both prevalence and CFU mL-1 count. Of the Candida species identified, 73.91% were C. albicans, 21.73% C. glabrata, 2.17% C. tropicalis, and 2.17% C. krusei.

Conclusions: The colonization of Candida spp. in the oral cavity of individuals with multiple sclerosis was higher than in the control group; however these findings were not proven to be statistically significant.

Keywords: Autoimmune disease; Candida; Candida albicans; Demyelinating disease; Microbiota; Multiple sclerosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Milo R, Miller A. Revised diagnostic criteria of multiple sclerosis. Autoimmun Rev. 2014;13(4–5):518–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autrev.2014.01.012 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Karussis D. The diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and the various related demyelinating syndromes: a critical review. J Autoimmun. 2014;48–49:134–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaut.2014.01.022 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kingwell E, Marriott JJ, Jette N, Pringsheim T, Makhani N, Morrow SA, et al. Incidence and prevalence of multiple sclerosis in Europe: a systematic review. BMC Neurol. 2013;13:128. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2377-13-128 . - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Steinman L. Immunology of relapse and remission in multiple sclerosis. Annu Rev Immunol. 2014;32:257–81. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-immunol-032713-120227 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Huang WJ, Chen WW, Zhang X. Multiple sclerosis: pathology, diagnosis and treatments. Exp Ther Med. 2017;13(6):3163–6. https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2017.4410 . - DOI - PubMed - PMC

Supplementary concepts

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources