Fusobacterium nucleatum: a commensal-turned pathogen

By Yiping W Han. Current Opinion in Microbiology, 2015

788 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Fusobacterium nucleatum is an anaerobic oral commensal and a periodontal pathogen associated with a wide spectrum of human diseases. This article reviews its implication in adverse pregnancy outcomes (chorioamnionitis, preterm birth, stillbirth, neonatal sepsis, preeclampsia), GI disorders (colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, appendicitis), cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, respiratory tract infections, Lemierre’s syndrom and Alzheimer’s disease. The virulence mechanisms involved in the diseases are discussed, with a particular emphasis on its colonization, systemic dissemination, and induction of host inflammatory and tumorigenic responses. The FadA adhesin/invasin conserved in F. nucleatum is a key virulence factor and a potential diagnostic marker for F. nucleatum-associated diseases.

Subfields: Emergency Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3ea532ed0dae5fb95ce6f91c8ad964f2d5a47bcc

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Citations in the corpus

• Association between periodontal pathogens and systemic disease (2019, background): “nucleatum is repeatedly isolated from amniotic fluid and cord blood in cases of preterm birth and neonatal sepsis [84,85].”
• Periodontitis: A Multifaceted Disease of Tooth-Supporting Tissues (2019, background): “nucleatum as the key organism in dental biofilms and its involvement in oral and extra-oral polymicrobial infections [40], recent research has shown its significant carcinogenic potential.”