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Ocular and Oral Microbiome: Comparison
Please note this is a comparison between Version 2 by Conner Chen and Version 1 by Pachiappan Arjunan.

The immune-privileged healthy eye has a small unique population of microbiota. Typically, ocular microflorae are commensals of low diversity that colonize the external and internal sites of the eye, without instigating any disorders. Any alteration in the symbiotic relationship culminates in the perturbation of ocular homeostasis and shifts the equilibrium toward local or systemic inflammation and, in turn, impaired visual function. A compositional variation in the ocular microbiota is associated with surface disorders such as keratitis, blepharitis, and conjunctivitis, however, studies now implicate non-ocular microbial dysbiosis in glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), uveitis, and diabetic retinopathy. A methodical understanding of the mechanisms of invasion and host-microbial interaction is of paramount importance for preventative and therapeutic interventions for vision-threatening conditions. This review article aims to explore the current literature evidence to better comprehend the role of oral pathogens in the etiopathogenesis of ocular diseases, specifically AMD.

  • ocular microbiome
  • oral microbiota
  • periodontal
  • inflammation
  • dysbiosis
  • homeostasis
  • age-related macular degeneration
  • glaucoma
  • diabetic retinopathy
  • uveitis
  • immunology
  • periodntitis

1. Introduction

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that greater than 4.2 million Americans aged 40 years and above are either legally blind or have low visual acuity [1]. Despite the approved notion that the eye is an immune-privileged organ, and its microbiota is passive in the immune defense, there is a propagating interest in studying the potential interplay between the host and microbial ecosystem.
Microbiota collectively refers to all the microorganisms such as bacteria, virus, fungi, archaea, and protists that exists in a commensal, symbiotic, or pathogenic relationship with the host. Correspondingly, the microbiome refers to the genetic elements of the microbes living inside and on the skin, gut, and mucosal surfaces [2,3,4,5][2][3][4][5]. These microbes participate in several physiological processes ranging from digestion, synthesis of vitamins, regulation of inflammation and immune system, and more importantly, surface barrier protection against pathogenic invasion [6,7][6][7]. Notably, environmental factors, dietary habits, age, and genetic make-up strongly influence the microbiota, which, in turn, impacts health through direct or indirect strategies [8]. In normalcy, homeostasis is maintained through a cordial interaction between the host and the infinite number of resident microbes that populate the entire stretch of our body. Amassed scientific reports have emphasized the critical role of the microbiota and microbiome in human health and disease and have underscored that microbial dysbiosis contributes to the pathogenesis of lifestyle disorders, auto-immune, neuropsychiatric, and even neoplastic diseases [9,10][9][10]. Hence, the microbiota is regarded as the master key and clinical experts have embarked on the journey to explore and target the human microbiome to treat various eye diseases.

2. Ocular Microbiome

The initial efforts at characterizing the core human microbiome disregarded the eye; however, there are now rigorous research efforts aimed at defining the ocular microbiome and emphasizing the concept of the “microbiota–gut–retina axis” [11,12,13][11][12][13]. The eyes are one type of organ that is constantly exposed to the environment and attracts diverse microorganisms. The tear film and mucin secretions protect the eye from foreign objects with their antimicrobial components, namely lysozyme, lactoferrin, and defensins, which prevent microbial colonization [14]. The conjunctiva and the cornea of the eye lodge the majority of the ocular microbiome. As evidenced by previous research efforts, relative to other microbiomes of the human hosts, which reside in the gut, mouth, nose, and skin, a healthy eye has a small unique, and expansive microbiome with low diversity [15,16,17][15][16][17]. Similar to other mucosal sites, the ocular microbiome plays a vital role in optimally regulating homeostasis and establishing host defense against pathogen invasion and its proliferation. The consortium of microbes inhabiting the eye includes bacteria, fungi, and viruses, while the bacterial groups are extensively focused. Among these, the fungi and viruses constitute less than 2% of the specimens [18,19][18][19]. Strikingly, tremendous research works and advancements in technologies (next-generation sequencing of 16S rDNA) have identified more than 500 bacterial genera from the conjunctival swabs [20]. The most abundantly cultivated bacterial organisms in a normal healthy eye are coagulase-negative staphylococci, AcinetobacterMethylobacteriumPropionibacteriumPseudomonasStreptophytaSphingomonas, and Corynebacterium species [16,21][16][21]. Even though the eye has adopted a harmonious relationship with the commensals, a compositional variation in the ocular microbiota is associated with ocular surface disorders [22,23][22][23] and that of the non-ocular microbiome [24] in scleritis, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy (DR) [25], uveitis [26,27,28[26][27][28][29],29], Retinitis Pigmentosa, Sjogren’s Syndrome, and AMD. A plethora of recent research has indicated the involvement of microbes of extra-ocular origin in the development and prognosis of ophthalmic pathologies (Table 1), which include bacteria, fungi, and viruses. It is noteworthy that more recent studies have identified the association of viral components in eye diseases such as uveitis in chronic infections of hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses [30[30][31],31], cytomegalovirus in AMD [32,33][32][33], and glaucoma [34], and more interestingly, coronavirus (COVID-19) is also implicated in ocular diseases [35,36,37,38][35][36][37][38]. Several studies have determined that homeostasis of the ocular surface is directly or indirectly impacted by the complex intestinal microbiome [39]. In this regard, wthe intended tofollowing content focus on the oral microbiome, especially the bacterial species that have been identified with a conspicuous role as a cofactor in the etiopathogenesis of a wide range of eye diseases.
Table 1.
 Extra and Intra Ocular Pathogens and Diseases.

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