Prevalence of Periodontal Pathogens in Slovak Patients with Periodontitis and Their Possible Aspect of Transmission from Companion Animals to Humans

Abstract

Oral health and diseases are greatly influenced by oral bacteria. During dysbiosis, bacterial composition changes, which can lead to periodontitis. Periodontitis in humans is associated with periodontal pathogens such as Treponema denticola, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia and Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans. Animal-to-human transmission of some of these pathogens has also been reported. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of periodontal pathogens in Slovak patients and to assess the possible risk of transmission of these pathogens from animals to their owners. The presence of periodontal pathogens in dental plaque was monitored by PCR. Amplified products were analysed using Sanger sequencing. T. forsythia isolates were assessed for the susceptibility to different antibiotics using the disk diffusion method. In humans, T. denticola, P. gingivalis, T. forsythia and A. actinomycetemcomitans were present in 69.23%, 69.23%, 100% and 84.62%, respectively. Most isolates of T. forsythia were susceptible to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, clindamycin and moxifloxacin, but they were resistant to metronidazole. The transmission of T. forsythia from animals to their owners was not proven based on sequence analysing. On the other hand, transmission of Porphyromonas gulae was confirmed, but the risk of its involvement in the pathogenesis of periodontitis in humans must be further investigated.

Keywords: Porphyromonas gulae; companion animals; humans; periodontal pathogens; periodontitis; transmission.

Figure 1

The phylogenetic tree of Porphyromonas gingivalis and Porphyromonas gulae based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. A phylogenetic tree for sequences obtained using primers for P. gingivalis was constructed by the neighbor-joining method. Length of 16S rRNA gene sequence used to construct the phylogenetic tree was 240 bp. Hosts and accession numbers for 16S rRNA gene sequences obtained from the GenBank database are given in parentheses. Each color represents the owners and their animals.

Figure 2

A phylogenetic tree based on comparison of 16S rRNA gene sequences of Tannerella forsythia. A phylogenetic tree was constructed by the neighbor-joining method. Length of 16S rRNA gene sequence used to construct the phylogenetic tree was 480 bp. Hosts and accession numbers for 16S rRNA gene sequences obtained from the GenBank database are given in parentheses. Sequences of owners and their animals are distinguished by different colors.