There is an urgent need for further research and evidence-based knowledge within most domains in geriatric dentistry and in other fields related to oral health and dental care for older persons striving for multi-disciplinary research programmes.

These experiments show that elevated levels of salivary SLPI can be associated with an increased inhibitory effect of the whole saliva sample, and that this inhibitory effect is decreased with broad coreceptor usage of the virus.

Purpose The primary aim was to describe the effects for nursing home residents of monthly professional cleaning and individual oral hygiene instruction provided by registered dental hygienists (RDHs), in comparison with daily oral care as usual. The secondary aim was to study the knowledge and attitudes among nursing staff regarding oral health care and needs. Patients and Methods In this randomised controlled trial (RCT), 146 residents were recruited from nine nursing homes in Regions of Stockholm and Sörmland and were randomly assigned (on nursing home level) to either intervention group (I; n=72) or control group (C; n=74). Group I received monthly professional cleaning, individual oral hygiene instructions and information given by an RDH. Group C proceeded with daily oral care as usual (self-performed or nursing staff-assisted). Oral health-related data was registered with the mucosal-plaque score index (MPS), the modified sulcus bleeding index (MSB), and root caries. The nursing staff’s attitudes and knowledge were analysed at baseline and at six-month follow-up. Statistical analysis was performed by Fisher’s exact test and two-way variance analysis (ANOVA). Results Improvements were seen in both Group I and Group C concerning MPS, MSB and active root caries. The nursing staff working with participants in Group I showed significant improvements regarding the Nursing Dental Coping Beliefs Scale (DCBS) in two of four dimensions, oral health care beliefs (p=0.0331) and external locus of control (p=0.0017) compared with those working with Group C. The knowledge-based questionnaire showed improvement ( p =0.05) in Group I compared with Group C. Conclusion Monthly professional oral care, combined with individual oral health care instructions, seems to improve oral hygiene and may reduce root caries among nursing home residents. This may also contribute to a more positive attitude regarding oral hygiene measures among nursing home staff, as compared with daily oral care as usual.

In the present study, we sought to define the importance of serum IgA (sIgA)-mediated immunity in HIV-2 infection. Serum samples from a total of 29 HIV-2-infected patients from Guinea-Bissau (n = 20) and Portugal (n = 9) were studied. Samples from seronegative individuals were used as controls. Antibody reactivity to native and recombinant envelope glycoproteins as well as peptides representing various regions of the envelope glycoproteins was investigated. Furthermore, the capacity of purified IgA to neutralize the HIV-2(SBL6669) strain was tested. All serum samples showed IgA reactivity against whole HIV-2 antigen. Twenty-eight out of 29 IgA samples (96%) reacted with native HIV-2 gp125, 26/29 (90%) with recombinant gp105, and 29/29 (100%) with recombinant gp36. When using peptides, the most prominent IgA reactivity was seen against the peptide representing aa 644-658 of the transmembranous protein gp36, to which 72% of the sera reacted. Purified sIgA antibodies showed neutralizing effects against HIV-2(SBL6669) in 17/29 cases (59%). This work describes the HIV-2-specific sIgA antigenic response. Moreover, our findings show, for the first time, that sIgA may play a role in the in vitro neutralization of HIV-2.

Several determinants of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have been suggested to harbor sites important for neutralization. The third variable region (V3) of the envelope glycoprotein (gp) is an important neutralizing determinant for both serotypes of HIV. The localization of additional neutralizing regions is an urgent task because the virus appears to mutate to phenotypes that escape neutralizing antibodies. Therefore, we have focused on the possibility of finding other immunodominant regions in the envelope glycoproteins of human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2). By immunization of guinea pigs with peptides corresponding to different selected regions of gp125 and gp36, we have found three antigenic determinants located in the V2 and V4 regions of the envelope protein gp125, and one region in the glycoprotein gp36, which are important for human antibody binding and also as targets for neutralization. The peptide representing the V2 region had the most pronounced capacity to induce neutralizing anti-HIV-2 antibodies in guinea pigs. Neutralizing activity was also detected in an antipeptide guinea pig sera representing a linear site in gp36, amino acids 644-658. A substitution set of peptides representing the conserved antigenic site in the central part of gp36 was used to identify the role of individual amino acids important for human antibody binding.