Characterization of the Oral and Gut Microbiota in Patients with Psoriatic Diseases: A Systematic Review

Tanja Todberg1,2, Hannah Kaiser1,2, Claus Zachariae1,2, Alexander Egeberg1,2, Anne-Sofie Halling1,2 and Lone Skov1,2

1Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen and 2Copenhagen Research Group for Inflammatory Skin (CORGIS), Hellerup, Denmark

Advances in technology have led to an increased number of studies investigating the microbiome in patients with psoriasis. This systematic review examined data regarding the oral and gut microbiota in patients with psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis and the effect of probiotics on the microbiota and severity of psoriasis. Of 1,643 studies, 23 were included (22 observational, 1 interventional). Studies examined the microbiota using culture or 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis. All culture-based studies identified an increased presence of oral Candida in patients with psoriasis, whereas small variations in the oral microbiota were found in a 16S rRNA gene-based study. All 16S rRNA gene sequencing based studies agreed that the gut microbiota of patients with psoriatic disease differed from that of healthy controls, but the results were heterogeneous. Probiotics were associated with a significant improvement in the severity of psoriasis, but did not change microbiota. Overall, studies lacked relevant inclusion criteria and baseline information. In conclusion, the role of the microbiota in patients with psoriasis requires further investigation using more robust methods.

Key words: psoriasis; psoriatic arthritis; microbiota; immune system; probiotics.

Accepted Jul 14, 2021; Epub ahead of print Jul 15, 2021

Acta Derm Venereol 2021; 101: adv00512.

doi: 10.2340/00015555-3882

Corr: Tanja Todberg, Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Gentofte Hospitalsvej 15, DK-2900, Denmark. E-mail: tanja.todberg@regionh.dk

SIGNIFICANCE

Studies investigating the association between psoriasis and the microbiome have increased rapidly. This systematic review examined the role of the oral and gut microbiota and the effect of probiotics in patients with psoriasis and/or psoriatic arthritis. Twenty-three out of an initial total of 1,643 studies were included in the analysis. Of these, 22 studies were observational and 1 was interventional. The results showed increased presence of Candida in the oral cavity, and all studies examining the gut microbiota identified an altered microbiota in patients with psoriatic disease, but, overall, the results were heterogeneous. Probiotics were associated with a significant decrease in psoriasis severity, but the microbiota was unchanged. Further research is required into the role of the microbiome in patients with psoriasis.

INTRODUCTION

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease affecting 2–4% of the population (1). It is associated with several comorbidities, including psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) (2). The pathogenesis of psoriasis is believed to involve an interplay between genetics, environmental markers, and the immune system, in which interleukin (IL)-23 and the Th17-derived cytokines IL-17 and IL-22 are considered to be the main drivers of inflammation (3).

The gastrointestinal system harbours trillions of microbial cells, with more than 9.9 million genes identified and, currently, the potential role of aberrant gut microbiota in inflammatory diseases is the focus of intense research, as the intestinal microbiota is known to have a critical function in the maturation and homeostasis of the immune system (4).

Studies, including murine models of imiquimod induced-psoriasis, have shown that changes in gut bacteria are associated with increased severity of skin inflammation, supporting the linkage between a gut–skin axis (5). Likewise, in adult mice, dysbiosis caused by administration of antibiotics has been associated with a reduced Th17 response and decreased psoriasiform inflammation (6). This potential modulation of the gut microbiome may represent a new target for the treatment of psoriasis; however, a greater understanding of the functional potential of the gut microbiome is needed.

In recent years there has been increased focus on inflammation and psoriasis, leading to an emerging number of studies investigating the microbiome in patients with psoriasis. Methodological characterization of the microbiome has evolved rapidly; thus, culture-dependent methods are being replaced by sequencing analyses, such as 16S rRNA gene amplicon technique and shotgun metagenomic sequencing (7). Consequently, differences in study designs and methods make it difficult to interpret the results.

The focus of this systematic review was to summarize results, taking into account methodological variations in studies, regarding the gut microbiota in patients with psoriatic diseases (i.e. psoriasis or PsA) compared with healthy controls. Since the oral cavity is part of the gastrointestinal tract and, due to the association between psoriasis and periodontal diseases, oral microbiota studies were also included (8).

METHODS

This systematic review was established and performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta- Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (9). A priori, a protocol was registered at PROSPERO (CRD42020168641).

Literature search

The databases PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and clinicaltrials.gov were searched for articles and trials until 11 March 2021, using the search term: “((psoriasis OR psoriatic OR psoriatic arthritis) AND ((microbiome OR microbiota OR microbial OR microflora OR prebiotics OR probiotics OR synbiotics) OR ((gut OR gastrointestinal OR gastro OR intestinal OR oral OR saliva OR dental) AND (diversity OR abundance OR composition OR balance)))”.

Study selection, outcome and quality assessment

Two authors (TT, HK) screened the titles and abstracts for eligible full-text studies. Eligibility criteria were observational studies that examined the association between patients with psoriasis and/or PsA and the oral and/or gut microbiome compared with healthy controls. Further interventional studies examining the effect of probiotics on the oral/and or gut microbiome in patients with psoriasis and/or PsA, were included. Animal studies and non-English studies, conference abstracts, case reports, and studies with no healthy control group or microbiome data were excluded. Newcastle Ottawa Scale (NOS) (score ≥ 7 indicated high-quality study) and Cochrane Collaboration’s tool were used for quality assessment (10).

RESULTS

Study characteristics

A total of 1,643 studies were identified in the screening process. Of these, 105 full-texts were eligible for further review and 23 full-text articles were included in the analysis (Fig. 1).

The studies included 4,379 participants, of whom 1,388 had psoriasis and 36 had PsA. All studies examined adults, except one study examining both children and adults (age range 10–82 years) (11) and, in most studies, the psoriatic population was age- and sex-matched with the control population (12–23). Nine studies included patients with plaque psoriasis only (11–13, 18, 20, 23–26), 6 studies included patients with mixed psoriasis types (15, 17, 21, 22, 27, 28) and 7 studies did not specify the type of psoriasis (14, 16, 19, 29–32). Fifteen studies examined patients with mild, moderate or severe psoriasis (11–13, 15–22, 24, 25, 27, 29), 2 studies examined patients with mild psoriasis (14, 32) and 4 studies reported no information on psoriasis severity (23, 28, 30, 31).

Quality assessment

Due to lack of information or unmatched controls, 16 studies were rated with a NOS score < 7 (11–13, 15, 17, 18, 22, 23, 25, 27–33), and 6 studies rated ≥ 7 (14, 16, 19–21, 24). The interventional study was rated with a low risk of bias (34).

Observational studies

Oral microbiota and psoriasis. Five studies investigated the oral microbiota in patients with psoriasis (n = 347) compared with healthy controls (n = 669) (11, 13, 24, 29, 30). Of these, 4 used culture-dependent methods and 1 used 16S rRNA gene sequencing analysis. Studies included both untreated patients and patients who used anti-psoriatic treatment, in 4 studies antibiotics were prohibited from 0–3 months before inclusion (11, 24, 29, 30), 2 studies had excluded patients with diabetes (11, 24), and in one study it was clinically verified that neither patients with psoriasis nor controls had periodontitis (30) Different methods were used for collection of oral material (Tables I and SI1).