A total of 100 volunteers have participated today in an initiative to collect saliva samples within the framework of the research project HARMONY in the lobby of the Parc Taulí University Hospital.
The objective of the initiative was to obtain a saliva sampling from people without Hidradenitis Suppurativa (HS) or Spondyloarthritis (SpA), who will form part of the control group of the study. Subsequently, these samples will be processed at the Biobank of Parc Taulí and sequenced to identify the different bacterial species present in the mouth.
The research project
HARMONY studies the relationship between oral health and general health of the organism within the framework of what is known as oral-systemic axisSpecifically, it analyzes the oral microbiome (the set of microorganisms that naturally live in the mouth) and its possible role in inflammatory diseases such as HS i theEspA, two chronic pathologies mediated by the immune system that can significantly affect people's quality of life.
The project hypothesis is that the Patients with coexisting HS and SpA have different oral microbiome profiles compared to patients with isolated disease (HS or SpA) and healthy people, characterized by a dysbiosis that could contribute to the pathogenesis of diseases by promoting systemic inflammation. The project is led by the group Inflammatory joint disease, bone metabolism and systemic autoimmune diseases (RheIMID) of the Parc Taulí Institute for Research and Innovation (I3PT), in collaboration with the Comparative Genomics group of the IRB Barcelona / Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC).
To answer this hypothesis, the study has three main objectives: to compare the oral microbiome between different groups; to identify microbial species associated with HS, SpA and their coexistence; and to explore the correlations between alterations in the oral microbiome and the clinical characteristics of the patients.
The importance of studying the oral microbiome
In recent years, scientific research has shown that Microorganisms that inhabit our bodies can influence health much more than initially thought. Although the gut microbiome and skin microbiome have already been extensively studied in these diseases, the The oral microbiome remains an unexplored area., despite being a key microbial reservoir with an impact on the immune system.
Understanding these interactions can contribute to identify new mechanisms involved in the development of the disease, to discover biomarkers useful for diagnosis or clinical monitoring and, in the future, open the door to new personalized therapeutic strategies.
Researchers of the HARMONY research project
Leave a comment