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The effect of electronic cigarette (e‐cigarette) smoking, especially its long‐term impact on oral health, is poorly understood. Here, we conducted a longitudinal clinical study with two study visits, 6 months apart, to investigate the effect of e‐cigarette use on the bacterial community structure in the saliva of 101 periodontitis patients. Our data demonstrated that e‐cigarette use altered the oral microbiome in periodontitis patients, enriching members of the Filifactor, Treponema, and Fusobacterium taxa. For patients at the same periodontal disease stage, cigarette smokers and e‐cigarette smokers shared more similarities in their oral bacterial composition. E‐cigarette smoking may have a similar potential as cigarette smoking at altering the bacterial composition of saliva over time, leading to an increase in the relative abundance of periodontal disease‐associated pathogens such as Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum. The correlation analysis showed that certain genera, such as Dialister, Selenomonas, and Leptotrichia in the e‐cigarette smoking group, were positively correlated with the levels of proinflammatory cytokines, including IFN‐γ, IL‐1β, and TNF‐α. E‐cigarette use was also associated with elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines such as IFN‐γ and TNF‐α, which contribute to oral microbiome dysbiosis and advanced disease state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malignant fungating wounds present in 5–14% of advanced cancer patients in the United States and are a result of cancerous cells infiltrating and proliferating in the skin. Presentation of malignant fungating wounds often occurs in the last 6 months of life and therefore become symbols of impending death for patients and their families. Due to the incurable and severe nature of these wounds, patients require palliative care until death to minimize pain and suffering. Symptoms associated with these chronic wounds include malodor, pain, bleeding, necrosis, large amounts of exudate, increased microbial growth, and more. Limited research using culture-based techniques has been conducted on malignant fungating wounds and therefore no optimal approach to treating these wounds has been established. Despite limited data, associations between the cutaneous microbiome of these wounds and severity of symptoms have been made. The presence of at least one strain of obligate anaerobic bacteria is linked with severe odor and exudate. A concentration of over 105/g bacteria is linked with increased pain and exudate. Bacterial metabolites such as DMTS and putrescine are linked with components of malignant fungating wound odor and degradation of periwound skin. The few but significant associations made between the malignant fungating wound microbiome and severity of symptoms indicate that further study on this topic using 16S rRNA gene sequencing may reveal potential therapeutic targets within the microbiome to significantly improve current methods of treatment used in the palliative care approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]