Do you know how many different microorganisms can reside in your mouth ? No less than 600. The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) in the United States has just created the first catalog that collects biological and genetic information on all these oral tenants.
The Human Oral Microbiome Database (HOMD) is available on the Internet and classifies microbes based on their 16S rRNA sequence , a fragment of genetic information that acts as a fingerprint. In addition to helping professionals recognize the pathogens that cause infections in our mouths, its creators hope that this catalog will contribute to understanding how microbe communities collectively act in this area of the human body.
And that's not all. In recent years it has been shown that the pathogens in our mouth are the protagonists of infections in other areas of the body. For example, four of the bacteria that cause periodontal problems also tend to cause thickening of the carotids, promoting cerebral and cardiac infarction , as recently published in the journal Circulation . And certain types of cancer can already be detected by testing the germs in saliva. Sufficient arguments to affirm that "the new database will be very useful for medical practice", as one of its creators, Dr. Bruce Paster, has assured.
HOMD (http://www.homd.org)
