Effect of Probiotic on and Clinical Isolates from Children with Early Childhood Caries.

Probiotics interfere with pathogenic microorganisms or reinstate the natural microbiome. and are well-known emerging pathogenic bacteria/fungi for dental caries. In this study, three probiotic strains ( 8014, 14917, and 11741) were tested on and clinical isolates using a multispecies biofilm model simulating clinical cariogenic conditions. The ten pairs of clinical isolates of and were obtained from children with severe early childhood caries. Our study findings show a remarkable inhibitory effect of 14917 on and clinical isolates, resulting in significantly reduced growth of and , a compromised biofilm structure with a significantly smaller microbial and extracellular matrix and a less virulent microcolony structure. FurTre, plantaricin, an antimicrobial peptide produced by , inhibited the growth of and . The mechanistic assessment indicated that 14917 had a positive inhibitory impact on the expression of and virulence genes and virulent structure, such as hypha formation. Future utilization of 14917 and/or its antimicrobial peptide plantaricin could lead to a new paradigm shift in dental caries prevention.