A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Multi-omics analysis of associations between host demographics and saliva metabolome, sugar profiles, and microbiome profiles
Authors: Noerman, Stefania; Esberg, Anders; Mack, Carina I.; Ahmed, Hany; Egert, Björn; Nordin, Elise; Brunius, Carl; Hanhineva, Kati; Johansson, Ingegerd; Landberg, Rikard
Publication year: 2026
Journal: Scientific Reports
Article number: 10494
Volume: 16
eISSN: 2045-2322
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-44287-w
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-44287-w
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/522895773
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
Omics profiling of saliva is an emerging research area with potential to uncover molecular signatures associated with oral and systemic health. We conducted a comprehensive multi-omics analysis of saliva to investigate associations between host demographics (age, sex, body mass index (BMI)) and molecular profiles. Saliva from 423 participants (16–79-years-old) were analyzed using LC-MS metabolomics (9,380 metabolite features for 416 participants), GC×GC-MS sugar profiling (69 sugars for 200 participants), and full-length 16S rDNA sequencing (500 microbial species for 420 participants). We used random forest modeling, multivariate OPLS analysis, and partial correlation networks for data integration. Age emerged as the strongest demographic factor, explaining up to 30% of variance in metabolite features, 17% in sugars, and 25% in microbial species, while sex showed moderate and BMI minimal associations. Age-associated metabolites included caffeine and trigonelline (higher in older participants) and urocanic acid (higher in younger participants). Younger participants had greater abundance of saccharolytic, facultative anaerobic bacteria while older participants had more anaerobic species. Species in the Streptococcus, Prevotella, and Veillonella genera correlated strongly with salivary sugars. These findings demonstrate that saliva provides a rich source of molecular information related to the individual, and that demographic factors must be considered in saliva-based biomarker-discovery studies.
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Funding information in the publication:
Open access funding provided by Umea University. SN was funded by the Swedish Research Council (Dnr: 2022 − 00924), and the ERA PerMed of the Joint Translational Call 2022 (GA N° 779282 of EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme). KH is supported by Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, Academy of Finland (no 321716 and 334814), EU Horizon 2020 (no 874739), EU Horizon Europe (no 101060247), and Lantmännen research foundation. RL is funded by the Swedish Research Council (no 2019–12064). The handling of participants’ personal data linked to their metabolomes was enabled by resources provided by the National Academic Infrastructure for Supercomputing in Sweden (NAISS) under project number SENS2023530, partially funded by the Swedish Research Council through grant agreement no. 2022–06725. The microbiota characterization was funded by Patenmedelsfonden No: 2022-007 (AE).
