title: Detection of hydrogen cyanide from oral anaerobes by cavity ring down spectroscopy.
abstract: Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) has been recognized as a potential biomarker for non-invasive diagnosis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection in the lung. However, the oral cavity is a dominant production site for exhaled HCN and this contribution can mask the HCN generated in the lung. It is thus important to understand the sources of HCN production in the oral cavity. By screening of oral anaerobes for HCN production, we observed that the genus of Porphyromonas, Prevotella and Fusobacterium generated low levels of HCN in vitro. This is the first study to show that oral anaerobes are capable of producing HCN in vitro. Further investigations were conducted on the species of P. gingivalis and we successfully detected HCN production (0.9-10.9 ppb) in the headspace of three P. gingivalis reference strains (ATCC 33277, W50 and OMG 434) and one clinical isolate. From P. gingivalis ATCC 33277 and W50, a strong correlation between HCN and CO2 concentrations (rs = 0.89, p < 0.001) was observed, indicating that the HCN production of P. gingivalis might be connected with the bacterial metabolic activity. These results indicate that our setup could be widely applied to the screening of in vitro HCN production by both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Finland.|Folkhälsan Institute of Genetics, Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland.|Abdominal Center Nephrology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.|Research Programs Unit, Diabetes and Obesity, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Kajsa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Roslund
authors.affiliation: Folkhälsan Institute of Genetics, Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland.|Abdominal Center Nephrology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.|Research Programs Unit, Diabetes and Obesity, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Christopher L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Fogarty
authors.affiliation: Oral and Maxillofacial Diseases, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Finland.
authors.forename: Pirkko J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Pussinen
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Lauri
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Halonen
authors.affiliation: Folkhälsan Institute of Genetics, Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland.|Abdominal Center Nephrology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.|Research Programs Unit, Diabetes and Obesity, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Per-Henrik
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Groop
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Metsälä
authors.affiliation: Folkhälsan Institute of Genetics, Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland.|Abdominal Center Nephrology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.|Research Programs Unit, Diabetes and Obesity, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Markku
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lehto
mesh_terms: D016866:Bacteroidaceae Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001944:Breath Tests; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D045853:Exhalation; D006801:Humans; D006856:Hydrogen Cyanide / Q000032:analysis*; D008168:Lung / Q000382:microbiology; D009055:Mouth / Q000382:microbiology; D016966:Porphyromonas gingivalis / Q000502:physiology*; D011552:Pseudomonas Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000502:physiology*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis
chemical_list: D006856:Hydrogen Cyanide