The throat is an ecological assemblage involved human cells and microbiota, and the colonizing bacteria are important factors in balancing this environment. However, this bacterial community profile has thus been poorly investigated. The purpose of this study was to investigate the microbial biology of the larynx and to analyze the throat biodiversity in laryngeal carcinoma patients compared to a control population in a case-control study. Barcoded pyrosequencing analysis of the 16S rRNA gene was used. We collected tissue samples from 29 patients with laryngeal carcinoma and 31 control patients with vocal cord polyps. The findings of high-quality sequence datasets revealed 218 genera from 13 phyla in the laryngeal mucosa. The predominant communities of phyla in the larynx were Firmicutes (54%), Fusobacteria (17%), Bacteroidetes (15%), Proteobacteria (11%), and Actinobacteria (3%). The leading genera were Streptococcus (36%), Fusobacterium (15%), Prevotella (12%), Neisseria (6%), and Gemella (4%). The throat bacterial compositions were highly different between laryngeal carcinoma subjects and control population (p = 0.006). The abundance of the 26 genera was significantly different between the laryngeal cancer and control groups by metastats analysis (p<0.05). Fifteen genera may be associated with laryngeal carcinoma by partial least squares discriminant analysis (p<0.001). In summary, this study revealed the microbiota profiles in laryngeal mucosa from tissue specimens. The compositions of bacteria community in throat were different between laryngeal cancer patients and controls, and probably were related with this carcinoma. The disruption of this bio-ecological niche might be a risk factor for laryngeal carcinoma.

The compositions and abundances of the microbiota in the ecological niche of the human throat and the possible relationship between the microbiota and laryngeal cancer are poorly understood. To obtain insight into this, we enrolled 27 laryngeal carcinoma patients and 28 subjects with vocal cord polyps as controls. For each subject, we simultaneously collected swab samples from the upper throat near the epiglottis (site I) and tissue samples from the vestibulum laryngis to the subglottic region (site II). The microbiota of the throat were fully characterized by pyrosequencing of barcoded 16S rRNA genes. We found 14 phyla, 20 classes, 38 orders, 85 families, and 218 genera in the throats of enrolled subjects. The main phyla were Firmicutes (54.7%), Fusobacteria (14.8%), Bacteroidetes (12.7%), and Proteobacteria (10.6%). Streptococcus (37.3%), Fusobacterium (11.3%), and Prevotella (10.6%) were identified as the three most predominant genera in the throat. The relative abundances of 23 bacterial genera in site I were significantly different from those in site II ( P < 0.05). The relative proportions of 12 genera largely varied between laryngeal cancer patients and control subjects ( P < 0.05). Collectively, this study outlined the spatial structure of microbial communities in the human throat. The spatial structure of bacterial communities significantly varied in two anatomical sites of the throat. The bacterial profiles of the throat of laryngeal cancer patients were strongly different from those of control subjects, and several of these microorganisms may be related to laryngeal carcinoma.

The prognostic value of preoperative neutrophils, platelets, lymphocytes, monocytes and calculated ratios in patients with laryngeal squamous cell cancer

The microbial communities that inhabit the laryngeal mucosa build stable microenvironments and have the potential to influence the health of the human throat. However, the associations between the microbiota structure and laryngeal carcinoma remain uncertain. Here, we explored this question by comparing the laryngeal microbiota structure in laryngeal cancer patients with that in control subjects with vocal cord polyps through high-throughput pyrosequencing. Overall, the genera Streptococcus, Fusobacterium, and Prevotella were prevalent bacterial populations in the laryngeal niche. Tumor tissue samples and normal tissues adjacent to the tumor sites (NATs) were collected from 31 laryngeal cancer patients, and the bacterial communities in laryngeal cancer patients were compared with control samples from 32 subjects. A comparison of the laryngeal communities in the tumor tissues and the NATs showed higher α-diversity in cancer patients than in control subjects, and the relative abundances of seven bacterial genera differed among the three groups of samples. Furthermore, the relative abundances of ten bacterial genera in laryngeal cancer patients differed substantially from those in control subjects. These findings indicate that the laryngeal microbiota profiles are altered in laryngeal cancer patients, suggesting that a disturbance of the microbiota structure might be relevant to laryngeal cancer.

Circular RNAs are abundant endogenous non-coding RNA with no 5′ cap and 3′ polyadenylation tail that modify liner mRNAs and have no terminal structures. Our knowledge of the biogenesis of circular RNAs has been expanded, and circular RNAs were shown to be key regulators of various diseases, especially cancers. Head and neck cancers are the sixth most popular cancers worldwide, and the overall survival rates remain unsatisfactory. Recent studies have indicated that circular RNAs are involved in the tumorigenesis, progression, invasion and chemosensitivity of head and neck cancers and that some circular RNAs could serve as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. In this study, we summarize research advances in the regulation of circular RNA biogenesis, their characteristics and functions, the involvement of circular RNAs in the pathophysiology of head and neck cancers and their potential clinical utilization, as well as the likely directions of future studies.