Ren Yanxin, Zhou Xiaohang, Cai Baiyan, Sun Yangcun, Ge Jingping, Ping Wenxiang
Engineering Research Center of Agricultural Microbiology Technology, Ministry of Education & Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Genetic Engineering and Biological Fermentation Engineering for Cold Region & Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Ecological Restoration and Resource Utilization for Cold Region & Key Laboratory of Microbiology, College of Heilongjiang Province & School of Life Sciences, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China; Harbin Vocational College of Science and Technology, Harbin 150300, China.
College of Basic Medicine, Mudanjiang Medical University, Mudanjiang 157000, China.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2025 Jun 16:145265. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.145265.
Dental caries, a common chronic oral disease, is mainly caused by cariogenic dental plaque biofilms. Current antibiotic therapies for preventing it have limitations, such as drug resistance and side effects. Polyphenols are bioactive plant compounds displaying potential in oral health. Lonicera caerulea polyphenols (LCP) have various physiological effects, yet research on their use in preventing and treating dental caries is limited. This study aimed to explore the impact of L. caerulea-fermented polyphenols on Streptococcus mutans and its mechanism of action on exopolysaccharides (EPS). The extracted and purified EPS of S. mutans were treated with LCP. LCP reduced the molecular weight (Mw) of EPS from 1.15 × 10 Da to 9.74 × 10 Da and increased the content of β-1,5-gal in EPS. Moreover, scanning electron microscopy showed that LCP treatment made EPS surface rough and porous, indicating that LCP disrupted the original dense structure of EPS. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance analyses further confirmed that LCP did not significantly alter the major functional groups of EPS but influenced the types of its glycosidic bonds. Meanwhile, LCP inhibited the growth of S. mutans, reduced the formation of EPS and biofilms, and suppressed the expression of genes related to quorum sensing (luxS) and biofilms (brpA). LCP exhibited a remarkable inhibitory effect on S. mutans. The findings indicated that LCP might serve as a natural preparation for preventing dental caries, thus providing a new research direction in the field of oral health.
龋齿是一种常见的慢性口腔疾病，主要由致龋性牙菌斑生物膜引起。目前用于预防龋齿的抗生素疗法存在局限性，如耐药性和副作用。多酚是具有生物活性的植物化合物，在口腔健康方面具有潜在作用。蓝靛果多酚（LCP）具有多种生理效应，但其在预防和治疗龋齿方面的研究有限。本研究旨在探讨蓝靛果发酵多酚对变形链球菌的影响及其对胞外多糖（EPS）的作用机制。用LCP处理提取并纯化的变形链球菌EPS。LCP使EPS的分子量（Mw）从1.15×10 Da降至9.74×10 Da，并增加了EPS中β-1,5-半乳糖的含量。此外，扫描电子显微镜显示LCP处理使EPS表面粗糙且多孔，表明LCP破坏了EPS原有的致密结构。傅里叶变换红外光谱和核磁共振分析进一步证实，LCP没有显著改变EPS的主要官能团，但影响了其糖苷键的类型。同时，LCP抑制变形链球菌的生长，减少EPS和生物膜的形成，并抑制与群体感应（luxS）和生物膜（brpA）相关基因的表达。LCP对变形链球菌表现出显著的抑制作用。研究结果表明，LCP可能作为预防龋齿的天然制剂，从而为口腔健康领域提供新的研究方向。
