Periodontal disease more common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Traces of bacteria associated with periodontal disease have been found in samples collected from rheumatoid arthritis patients. "Our findings indicate that damage of the oral mucosal barrier mediated by [periodontal disease] results in repeated, spontaneous translocation of citrullinated oral bacteria to the blood, which trigger innate and adaptive immune responses in RA associated with systemic disease flares," the research group wrote in Science Translational Medicine.

This isn’t first study to link RA with periodontal disease. One 2008 study found that RA patients were at eightfold higher risk of having periodontitis compared with non-RA individuals. Similarly, in 2019, a Korean analysis showed that while RA wasn't connected to periodontitis in survey data, it was more likely in people experiencing early tooth loss. However, this study may be the first to suggest a clear causative pathway between dental infections and RA.

Researchers conducted a series of studies in several patient cohorts. Their findings confirmed that oral bacterial components (especially from Streptococcus species) entered the circulation at higher rates in the RA patients with periodontal disease compared with those without.  The researchers also determined that during RA clinical exacerbations, expression spiked for genes associated with inflammatory monocyte responses in synovial tissue, but only in the patients with periodontal disease.

Tracing the connection between the two conditions could help develop therapies for rheumatoid arthritis, while the approach that led to the study could prove fruitful in other disease contexts, such as cancer.

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