ArticlePloS one2021
Feasibility of investigating the association between bacterial pathogens and oral leukoplakia in low and middle income countries: A population-based pilot study in India.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Alterations of oral microbiome in oral potentially malignant disorders: a systematic review.BMC oral health · 2026Pooled it
- Unraveling Oral Dysbiosis: Microbial Complexity in Common Oral Diseases.MicrobiologyOpen · 2026Review
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundCertain oral bacterial pathogens may play a role in oral carcinogenesis. We assessed the feasibility of conducting a population-based study in India to examine the distributions and levels of Porphyromonas gingivalis, Fusobacterium nucleatum and Prevotella intermedia in relation to oral leukoplakia (a potentially malignant disorder) and other participant characteristics.
methodsThis exploratory case-control study was nested within a large urban Indian cohort and the data included 22 men and women with oral leukoplakia (cases) and 69 leukoplakia-free controls. Each participant provided a salivary rinse sample, and a subset of 34 participants (9 cases; 25 controls) also provided a gingival swab sample from keratinized gingival surface for quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).
resultsNeither the distribution nor the levels of pathogens were associated with oral leukoplakia; however, individual pathogen levels were more strongly correlated with each other in cases compared to controls. Among controls, the median level of total pathogens was the highest (7.55×104 copies/ng DNA) among persons of low socioeconomic status. Salivary rinse provided better DNA concentration than gingival swab for qPCR analysis (mean concentration: 1.8 ng/μl vs. 0.2 ng/μl).
conclusionsThis study confirms the feasibility of population studies evaluating oral microbiome in low-resource settings and identifies promising leads for future research.
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Registered trials
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