Biogeographical Impacts of Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Microbial Reservoirs.

The human mouth, or oral cavity, is at the crossroads of our external and internal environments, and it is increasingly evident that local colonization of dental, oral, and craniofacial (DOC) tissues and cells by bacteria and viruses may also have systemic effects across myriad diseases and disorders. Better understanding of this phenomenon will require a holistic understanding of host-microbial interactions in both spatiotemporal and biogeographical contexts while also considering person-, organ-, tissue-, cell-, and molecular-level variation. After the acute phase interaction with microbes, the establishment of site-specific reservoirs constitutes an important relationship to understand within the human body; however, despite a preliminary understanding of how viral reservoirs originate and persist across the human body, the landscape of single-cell and spatial multiomic tools has challenged our current understanding of what cells and niches can support microbial reservoirs. The lack of complete understanding impacts research into these relevant topics and implementing precision care for microbial-induced or microbial-influenced diseases. Here, via the lens of acute and chronic microbial infections of the DOC tissues, the goal of this review is to highlight and link the emerging spatiotemporal biogeography of host-viral interactomics at 3 levels: (1) DOC cell types in distinct tissues, (2) DOC-associated microbes, and (3) niche-specific DOC pathologies. Further, we will focus on the impact of postacute infectious syndromes such as long COVID, neurodegenerative disorders, and other underappreciated postviral conditions. We will provide hypotheses about how DOC tissues may play roles systemically in these conditions. Throughout, we will underscore how COVID-19 has catalyzed a new understanding of these biological questions, discuss future directions to study these phenomena, and highlight the utility of noninvasive oral biofluids in screening, monitoring, and intervening to prevent and/or ameliorate human infectious diseases.

Can immunohistochemical biomarkers distinguish epithelial dysplasia degrees in actinic cheilitis? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Actinic cheilitis (AC) is a potentially malignant disorder of the lip, characterized by epithelial and connective tissue alterations caused by chronic exposure to ultraviolet radiation. In the past decades, diverse studies have been conducted in lip carcinogenesis and many biomarkers have been identified in lip lesions, yet there is no scientific evidence that determines its usefulness in the clinical setting or in histopathological routine. Therefore, we conducted the first systematic review in this field to summarize the results of published studies on immunohistochemical biomarkers in lip carcinogenesis, to evaluate if there is a marker than can distinguish the different histological grades of AC. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Retrospective studies that investigated immunohistochemical biomarkers in AC defined on standardised histological assessment were gathered from five databases and evaluated. Each study was qualitatively evaluated using the Critical Appraisal Tools from SUMARI. RESULTS: The proliferation marker Ki-67 was the most studied biomarker and we observed, through meta-analysis, that it was differently expressed between AC and lip cancer, but not in AC subgroups. Most articles had a high risk of bias. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, the literature lacks quality follow up studies in actinic cheilitis. Multi-centre cohort studies, with patients stratified by treatment type and the use of image analysis software, could be the solution to further address the issues of investigating potentially malignant lesions and help change clinical practice, in terms of individualizing patients' treatment and prognosis prediction.