Kroese JM, Brandt BW, Buijs MJ, et al. - This study was attempted to discuss the oral microbiome and the periodontal condition in patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (ERA) and individuals at risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Researchers recruited 50 participants in each group (three): ERA patients (2010 ACR/EULAR criteria), at-risk individuals (arthralgia and autoantibodies), and healthy controls. They evaluated the microbial composition of subgingival dental plaque, saliva, and tongue coating using 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing, and compared between groups with permutational multivariate analyses of variance. The outcomes exhibit similarities in the oral microbiome between ERA patients and at-risk individuals, both presenting with the elevated relative abundance of potentially pro-inflammatory species in comparison with healthy controls, implying a possible relationship between the oral microbiome and RA onset.