Levine Martin
Department of Biochemistry, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 940 S. L. Young Boulevard, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA.
Int J Dent. 2011;2011:953412. doi: 10.1155/2011/953412. Epub 2011 Nov 29.
Early childhood caries affects 28% of children aged 2-6 in the US and is not decreasing. There is a well-recognized need to identify susceptible children at birth. Caries-free adults neutralize bacterial acids in dental biofilms better than adults with severe caries. Saliva contains acidic and basic proline-rich proteins (PRPs) which attach to oral streptococci. The PRPs are encoded within a small region of chromosome 12. An acidic PRP allele (Db) protects Caucasian children from caries but is more common in African Americans. Some basic PRP allelic phenotypes have a three-fold greater frequency in caries-free adults than in those with severe caries. Early childhood caries may associate with an absence of certain basic PRP alleles which bind oral streptococci, neutralize biofilm acids, and are in linkage disequilibrium with Db in Caucasians. The encoding of basic PRP alleles is updated and a new technology for genotyping them is described.
幼儿龋齿影响了美国28%的2至6岁儿童，且这一比例并未下降。人们普遍认识到有必要在儿童出生时就识别出易患龋齿的儿童。无龋齿的成年人比患有严重龋齿的成年人能更好地中和牙菌斑中的细菌酸。唾液中含有酸性和碱性富含脯氨酸蛋白（PRP），它们附着于口腔链球菌。PRP由12号染色体的一个小区域编码。一种酸性PRP等位基因（Db）可保护白人儿童免受龋齿侵害，但在非裔美国人中更为常见。一些碱性PRP等位基因表型在无龋齿的成年人中的出现频率比患有严重龋齿的成年人高三倍。幼儿龋齿可能与某些碱性PRP等位基因的缺失有关，这些等位基因可结合口腔链球菌、中和生物膜酸，并且在白种人中与Db处于连锁不平衡状态。本文更新了碱性PRP等位基因的编码，并描述了一种对其进行基因分型的新技术。
