全球超过一半的人口患有口腔疾病,其医护费用与全球十大常见死亡病因的花费相当,而且口腔感染与早产、动脉粥样硬化、肝硬化、糖尿病、阿尔茨海默病等全身性或慢性疾病显著相关,因此,口腔微生物组一直是人类微生物组计划的主要研究对象之一。与人体其他部位比较,口腔微生物组研究具有取样快捷、宿主反应表征方便、干预手段直接有效等特点;同时,超过65%的口腔细菌类群已可培养,诸多代表性菌株的全基因组信息已破译。因此口腔微生物组在菌群内部调控网络及其与宿主互作机制、局部感染对远隔器官的影响机制、以及基于菌群的慢病早期预警等微生物组研究核心科学问题上具备作为模式研究体系与技术示范对象的重要优势。本文在分析口腔微生物组学国际、国内研究现状的基础上,建议尽快启动中国人口腔微生物组计划(China human oral microbiome project,CHOMP),通过产学研协同攻关,开拓基于口腔菌群的口腔及全身系统性疾病的个体化预防、诊断及治疗策略。
Oral diseases affect over half of world's population and cost the health care the same budget as for the top ten mortality diseases. Moreover, oral infections are associated with systemic or chronic diseases such as preterm birth, atherosclerosis, cirrhosis, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. Hence, oral microbiome has always been one of the major targets of Human Microbiome Projects. Compared to other body sites, oral microbiome research is characterized by easily-accessible sampling, convenience in phenotyping host responses and directness and high efficacy of intervention approaches. In addition, over 65% of oral bacteria groups are deemed culturable, and genomes of representative strains from these groups have mostly been sequenced. Therefore, oral microbiome is becoming an exceptional research model and basis of technological demonstration for the fundamental questions of human microbiome research, such as inter-species interaction networks, impact of local infection on remote organs, and predictive modeling of chronic diseases, etc. By reviewing the recent scientific and technological progresses in oral microbiome study, here we advocate for the initiation of China Human Oral Microbiome Project (CHOMP), which calls for the collaborative and synergistic efforts from academic, clinical and industrial fronts for exploring and developing strategies and solutions for personalized prognosis, diagnosis and therapy for oral and systemic diseases based on oral microbiome.