Department of Oral Biology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University 69978, Israel.
Department of Oral Biology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University 69978, Israel; Department of Periodontology, The Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University 69978, Israel.
J Dent. 2024 Feb;141:104805. doi: 10.1016/j.jdent.2023.104805. Epub 2023 Dec 13.
Childhood caries, a prevalent chronic disease, affects 60-90 % of children in industrialized regions, leading to lesions in both primary and permanent teeth. This condition precipitates hospital admissions, emergency room visits, elevated treatment costs, and missed school days, thereby impeding the child's academic engagement and increasing the likelihood of caries into adulthood. Despite multiple identified risk factors, significant interpersonal variability remains unexplained. The immune system generates a unique antibody repertoire, essential for maintaining a balanced and healthy oral microbiome. Streptococcus mutans is a primary contributor to the development of caries.
Employing mass spectrometry, we investigated the S. mutans proteins targeted by antibodies in children both with and without caries, delineating a fundamental suite of proteins discernible by the immune systems of a majority of individuals. Notably, this suite was enriched with proteins pivotal for bacterial adhesion. To ascertain the physiological implications of these discoveries, we evaluated the efficacy of saliva in thwarting S. mutans adherence to dental surfaces.
Antibodies in most children recognized a core set of ten S. mutans proteins, with additional proteins identified in some individuals. There was no significant difference in the proteins identified by children with or without caries, but there was variation in antibody binding intensity to some proteins. Functionally, saliva from caries-free individuals, but not children with caries, was found to hinder the binding of S. mutans to teeth. These findings delineate the S. mutans proteome targeted by the immune system and suggest that the inhibition of bacterial adherence to teeth is a primary mechanism employed by the immune system to maintain oral balance and prevent caries formation.
These findings enhance our knowledge of the immune system's function in oral health maintenance and caries prevention, shedding light on how immunoglobulins interact with S. mutans proteins.
Targeting S. mutans proteins implicated in bacterial adhesion could be a promising strategy for preventing childhood caries.
儿童龋齿是一种普遍的慢性疾病，影响了工业化地区 60-90%的儿童，导致乳牙和恒牙出现病变。这种情况会导致住院、急诊就诊、治疗费用增加和缺课，从而阻碍儿童的学业参与，并增加成年后患龋齿的可能性。尽管已经确定了多个风险因素，但仍有很大的个体间差异无法解释。免疫系统产生独特的抗体库，对于维持口腔微生物组的平衡和健康至关重要。变形链球菌是导致龋齿的主要原因之一。
我们采用质谱法研究了患有和不患有龋齿的儿童的 S. mutans 蛋白，确定了免疫系统大多数个体能够识别的基本蛋白谱。值得注意的是，这个谱富含对细菌黏附至关重要的蛋白。为了确定这些发现的生理意义，我们评估了唾液阻止 S. mutans 黏附到牙齿表面的效果。
大多数儿童的抗体识别出一组核心的 S. mutans 十蛋白，有些个体还识别出其他蛋白。患有龋齿和不患有龋齿的儿童识别出的蛋白没有显著差异，但一些蛋白的抗体结合强度存在差异。功能上，无龋齿个体的唾液，而不是患有龋齿的儿童的唾液，被发现可以阻止 S. mutans 与牙齿的结合。这些发现描述了免疫系统针对 S. mutans 的蛋白质组，并表明抑制细菌与牙齿的黏附是免疫系统维持口腔平衡和预防龋齿形成的主要机制。
这些发现增强了我们对免疫系统在口腔健康维持和龋齿预防中的功能的认识，揭示了免疫球蛋白如何与 S. mutans 蛋白相互作用。
针对与细菌黏附相关的 S. mutans 蛋白可能是预防儿童龋齿的一种有前途的策略。
