Tooth decay affects most of the population in developed countries. The multifactorial etiology of the disease includes multiple bacterial species, S. mutans is the main pathogen associated with the disease. This bacte...Tooth decay affects most of the population in developed countries. The multifactorial etiology of the disease includes multiple bacterial species, S. mutans is the main pathogen associated with the disease. This bacterium adheres to the tooth surface and allows the colonization of other microorganisms resulting in dental biofilm. Several therapeutic agents are available to treat or prevent tooth decay, but none, with the exception of fluoride, has significantly influenced the disease’s global burden. Moreover, the probable development of resistance of microorganisms to existing antibacterial agents and the scarcity of good antimicrobial agents motivates this effort for innovation. The detailed knowledge obtained in recent years on the S. mutans allowed the identification of potential targets in this microorganism, enabling the development of specific drugs to combat tooth decay. Thus, the identification of potential targets in these pathogens is the first step in the discovery process of new therapeutic agents. Currently, the experimental assays used for this purpose are expensive and time consuming. In contrast, bioinformatics methods to predict drug targets are cheap, quick and workaday in the biotechnology. This article will review the potential drug targets in S. mutans, as well as the bioinformatics methods used to identify these targets and effective drugs for specific pharmacological treatment of dental caries.展开更多
Cariogenic Streptococcus mutans(S.mutans)is a leading cause of bacterial-induced oral diseases.Current strategies to kill bacteria based on Host defense peptide(HDP)mimicking polymers hold promise to treat oral bacter...Cariogenic Streptococcus mutans(S.mutans)is a leading cause of bacterial-induced oral diseases.Current strategies to kill bacteria based on Host defense peptide(HDP)mimicking polymers hold promise to treat oral bacterial infection.Here,we explore the impact of hydrophobic subunit and chain length variation on the antibacterial and antibiofilm activity ofβ-peptide polymers.The physicochemical and biological prop-erties,such as the toxicity,the antibacterial activity,and the effect on bacterial transcription ofβ-peptide polymers,were systematically investigated with numerous techniques.The results exhibited that the op-timalβ-peptide polymer has low toxicity towards human periodontal ligament fibroblasts,andβ-peptide polymers(especially P3)have more excellent antibacterial activity against S.mutans than metronidazole.In addition,β-peptide polymers inhibited the reversible and irreversible bacterial adhesion during the formation of biofilms.The polymer can promote biofilm dispersion by decreasing the hydrophobicity of bacterial cells after adhering to cell surfaces.Analysis of the transcriptome for S.mutans treated withβ-peptide polymers demonstrated thatβ-peptide polymers could reduce the cariogenicity of S.mutans by impacting the transcription of the energy and acid metabolism-related genes.β-peptide polymers are promising antimicrobial agents in clinical dentistry due to their high antibacterial efficiency and low tox-icity.展开更多
文摘Tooth decay affects most of the population in developed countries. The multifactorial etiology of the disease includes multiple bacterial species, S. mutans is the main pathogen associated with the disease. This bacterium adheres to the tooth surface and allows the colonization of other microorganisms resulting in dental biofilm. Several therapeutic agents are available to treat or prevent tooth decay, but none, with the exception of fluoride, has significantly influenced the disease’s global burden. Moreover, the probable development of resistance of microorganisms to existing antibacterial agents and the scarcity of good antimicrobial agents motivates this effort for innovation. The detailed knowledge obtained in recent years on the S. mutans allowed the identification of potential targets in this microorganism, enabling the development of specific drugs to combat tooth decay. Thus, the identification of potential targets in these pathogens is the first step in the discovery process of new therapeutic agents. Currently, the experimental assays used for this purpose are expensive and time consuming. In contrast, bioinformatics methods to predict drug targets are cheap, quick and workaday in the biotechnology. This article will review the potential drug targets in S. mutans, as well as the bioinformatics methods used to identify these targets and effective drugs for specific pharmacological treatment of dental caries.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.51871050)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.U2106206)+3 种基金the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province(No.20180510041)the Liaon-ing Revitalization Talents Program(No.XLYC1907158)the Gen-eral Project of Natural Science Foundation of Science and Tech-nology Department of Liaoning Province(No.2021-MS-308)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(No.N2120007).
文摘Cariogenic Streptococcus mutans(S.mutans)is a leading cause of bacterial-induced oral diseases.Current strategies to kill bacteria based on Host defense peptide(HDP)mimicking polymers hold promise to treat oral bacterial infection.Here,we explore the impact of hydrophobic subunit and chain length variation on the antibacterial and antibiofilm activity ofβ-peptide polymers.The physicochemical and biological prop-erties,such as the toxicity,the antibacterial activity,and the effect on bacterial transcription ofβ-peptide polymers,were systematically investigated with numerous techniques.The results exhibited that the op-timalβ-peptide polymer has low toxicity towards human periodontal ligament fibroblasts,andβ-peptide polymers(especially P3)have more excellent antibacterial activity against S.mutans than metronidazole.In addition,β-peptide polymers inhibited the reversible and irreversible bacterial adhesion during the formation of biofilms.The polymer can promote biofilm dispersion by decreasing the hydrophobicity of bacterial cells after adhering to cell surfaces.Analysis of the transcriptome for S.mutans treated withβ-peptide polymers demonstrated thatβ-peptide polymers could reduce the cariogenicity of S.mutans by impacting the transcription of the energy and acid metabolism-related genes.β-peptide polymers are promising antimicrobial agents in clinical dentistry due to their high antibacterial efficiency and low tox-icity.
