Sensitivity of caries pathogens to antimicrobial peptides related to caries risk.
Goeke. Julia Eliette JE; Kist. Stefan S; Schubert. Sören S; Hickel. Reinhard R; Huth. Karin Christine KC; Kollmuss. Maximilian M
Key Findings
- Certain strains of cavity‑causing bacteria (Streptococcus mutans, Actinomyces naeslundii, Lactobacillus) show low susceptibility to the peptide LL‑37 and other AMPs
- Patients with more low‑susceptibility strains have higher DMFT scores, indicating more tooth decay
- The type and concentration of AMPs significantly affect the reduction of Lactobacilli and Actinomyces in biofilm models
Practical Outcomes
- While the findings hint that boosting oral LL‑37 activity might lower caries risk, the research is still early and doesn’t provide a specific protocol. For now, biohackers could monitor emerging oral‑health products that target AMP pathways, but they should stick to proven dental hygiene practices.
Summary
The study found that some bacteria causing cavities are less killed by natural antimicrobial peptides like LL‑37, and people who have more of these resistant strains tend to have worse tooth decay. This suggests that measuring how well these peptides work against your mouth bacteria could help spot higher caries risk, but there’s no ready‑to‑use treatment yet.
Abstract
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) represent important facets of the immune system controlling infectious diseases. However, pathogens show varying susceptibilities to AMPs. This study investigates the susceptibilities of strains of Streptococcus mutans (SM), Actinomyces naeslundii (AN), and Lactobacillus spp. (LB) towards AMPs and if there are correlations between the appearance of such high-risk strains and clinical caries status. Plaque samples were collected from patients along with clinical examinations. Bacterial strains were identified via selective media, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization analysis-time of flight (MALDI-TOF), and arbitrary-primed-PCR (AP-PCR). Each strain was tested for susceptibility to LL-37, HBD-2, HNP-1, and HNP-3 or phosphate-buffered saline as negative control in a biofilm model on hydroxylapatite discs. Survival rates and resulting risk classification for each strain were determined. Correlations were calculated between the number of high-risk strains (all/S. mutans) appearing in patients and their clinical caries status. Forty-seven patients were included with mean DMFT values of 11.4 ± 8.7. A total of 8 different SM, 30 LB, and 47 AN strains were detected. One-way ANOVA indicated that type/concentration of AMPs had major influence on reductions of Lactobacilli and Actinomyces. Seventeen strains of AN, 2 of SM, and 6 of LB had low susceptibilities to AMPs. The number of such strains in patients showed significant positive correlations to the DMFT values (all p = 0.001; r = 0.452; S. mutans p < 0.0001, r = 0.558). The occurrence of low susceptible strains to AMPs seems to correlate with the individual caries status. The results may lead to new ways to identify individuals with increased caries risk.
Study Information
pubmed
2018
2018-01-25T00:00:00.000Z
10.1007/s00784-018-2348-7
18
44