Features of the functional and metabolic activity of microorganisms inhabiting the oral cavity

The oral microbiota includes more than 700 species of microorganisms, the bulk of which are opportunistic pathogens, and the relationships between them are characterized by wide variability, which is manifested by both antagonism and mutualism. At the same time, it has not been established yet how the symbiotic relationships of microorganisms that are of clinical importance, are reflected in the virulence of certain species. Moreover, the issues of microbial syntrophy are hardly studied in medical microbiology. It is of interest to study the accumulated information on changes in the functional and metabolic activity of oral microorganisms, taking into account their symbiotic relationships. Currently, in the study of the oral microbiome, a rejection of a culture-based approach in favor of nucleic acid analysis methods is observed due to some reasons. However, the widespread use of such technologies has led to a number of new questions, concerning, for example, the interpretation of the obtained results on the composition of microorganisms, since the methods of nucleic acid analysis allow the identification of taxa represented by almost a few cells. The review article shows that when conducting microbiological studies, it is important to take into account the symbiotic relationships between individual microorganisms, since they can change the functional and metabolic activity of associates, and hence the severity of the pathological process. The existing technologies of molecular genetic analysis do not allow one to evaluate either the orientation of symbiotic relationships or the functional activity of microorganisms. On the other hand, the possibilities of the cultural methods are also limited by the exactingness of most clinically significant taxa to the conditions of cultivation, and the data on the functional activity of isolated strains do not allow us to evaluate its manifestations in real conditions of microsymbiocenosis. It seems appropriate to search and/or develop approaches to assessing the functional and metabolic activity of the total microflora, taking into account the clinical picture of the disease. Moreover, the use and creation of new probiotics, which will allow regulating the composition of the microbial community, and hence its functional activity should be recognized as a promising direction for the search for drug treatment.