Kaidi Zhao,1,* Yang Zhao,2,* Ao Guo,1 Shengxiang Xiao,1 Chen Tu1 

1Department of Dermatology, Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710004, People’s Republic of China; 2National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Biodiagnosis and Biotherapy, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710004, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Chen Tu; Shengxiang Xiao, Email tuchen2023@126.com; xiao_sx@163.com

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease, and its etiology is still unclear. There is increasing evidence suggesting that microorganisms may trigger psoriasis. However, the relationship between psoriasis and oral microbiota remains poorly understood. Our aim is to identify differences in the composition and diversity of the oral microbiota between patients with psoriasis and healthy controls, and to discover oral microbial markers for assessing the severity of psoriasis.
Methods: This study recruited 20 psoriasis patients and 20 healthy individuals, collecting their saliva to analyze the composition of the oral microbiota in psoriasis patients. We employed 16S rRNA sequencing technology and utilized various methods for oral microbiome analysis, including the Shannon Index, Gini-Simpson Index, Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA), non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), Linear discriminant analysis Effect Size (LEfSe), Wilcoxon test, and Spearman’s rank correlation.
Results: The results showed that the alpha diversity of oral microbiota was higher in psoriasis patients. The relative abundances of certain bacterial taxa differed between psoriasis and healthy individuals, including Prevotella, Prevotella 7 and Porphyromonas gingivalis, which are increased in psoriasis. We also found a positive correlation between Alloprevotella, Porphyromonas, and Neisseria with the severity of psoriasis, while Veillonella showed a negative correlation.
Conclusion: In summary, this study found significant changes in the composition of the oral microbiota in patients with psoriasis. Some oral bacteria are associated with psoriasis severity. It provides a new perspective on the relationship between the oral microbiota and psoriasis.

Keywords: psoriasis, oral microbiota, dysbiosis, comorbidity, 16s rRNA