Association of polymorphisms in genes involved in enamel formation, taste preference and immune response with early childhood caries in Saudi pre-school children

Abstract

Dental caries is primarily elicited by modifiable factors such as inadequate oral hygiene, poor dietary practices and deficient fluoride exposure. However, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting the profound influence of genetic factors in dental caries susceptibility. The present study aimed to evaluate the association between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ENAM (rs12640848), MMP20 (rs1784418), TAS2R38 (rs713598), and LTF (rs4547741) genes and early childhood caries (ECC) in Saudi preschool children . This case-control study enrolled 360 Saudi preschool children (262 with ECC and 98 caries-free). Data on environmental factors were collected through a questionnaire. However, caries experience and oral hygiene data were obtained during clinical examination. Buccal swab samples were collected for DNA extraction and SNPs were genotyped using PCR and DNA sequencing. Children with ECC were compared to caries free children (control), then they were categorized into two categories based on ECC severity as follows; non-severe ECC (NS-ECC), and severe-ECC (S-ECC). Association between the SNPs, ECC, NS-ECC, and S-ECC was reported as an odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). The majority of the children (72.8%) exhibited ECC (31.7% NS-ECC and 41.1% S-ECC) with mean dmft of 4.20 ± 4.05. Multivariate analyses of environmental factors showed that nocturnal feeding was a risk factor for ECC ( P = 0.008). Poor oral hygiene was also a risk factor for both NS-ECC and S-ECC (ECC: P < 0.0001, NS-ECC: P = 0.032 and S-ECC: P < 0.0001). Univariate analysis showed that the AG genotype of rs1784418 of MMP20 gene was protective against ECC (OR = 0.532; 95% CI = 0.316–0.897, P = 0.018) and against NS-ECC (OR = 0.436; 95% CI = 0.238–0.798, P = 0.007). When environmental risk factors for ECC were included as covariates during multivariate analysis, AG variant in rs1784418 of MMP20 gene remained less frequent in NS-ECC cases compared to controls with borderline significance (OR = 0.542; 95% CI = 0.285–1.033, P = 0.063). Our findings concluded that MMP20 rs1784418 SNP might be associated with protection against ECC in Saudi preschool children.

SEQUEL: Prevalence of dental caries in Saudi Arabia: A systematic review and Meta-analysis

“…Data for primary and permanent dentitions was extracted and tabulated in Table 1 , Table 2 , respectively. Seven articles included both primary and permanent teeth ( Madhan et al, 2021 , Aqeeli et al, 2021 , Gudipaneni et al, 2021 , Al-Badr et al, 2021 , Al-Samadani et al, 2017 , Farooqi et al, 2015 , Bhayat et al, 2013 ), while ten studies only reported caries in primary teeth ( Alamri et al, 2017 , Vanka et al, 2022 ; AlMarshad et al, 2021a , AlMarshad et al, 2021b ; Gudipaneni et al, 2020 , Al-Malik et al, 2019 , Alhabdan et al, 2018 , Abdallah et al, 2016 , Al-Meedani and Al-Dlaigan, 2016 , Alkarimi et al, 2014 ). Sixteen articles reported caries in permanent teeth ( Alsaif et al, 2022 , Al-Zahrani et al, 2022 , Alghamdi et al, 2022 , Gudipaneni et al, 2022 , Alotaibi et al, 2021 , Al-Ansari and Nazir, 2020 , Abdellatif and Hebbal, 2020 , Abolfotouh et al, 2020 , Basheer et al, 2020 , Alshahrani et al, 2018 , Aljanakh, 2017 , Alkhadra, 2017 , Mustafa et al, 2016 , Al-Shahrani et al, 2015 , Bhayat and Ahmad, 2014 , Togoo et al, 2011 ).…”

Biological gene extraction path based on knowledge graph and natural language processing

“…Am A pointed out that the types of knowledge graphs are very broad, including public and private types. Knowledge graphs can also be obtained through the Internet, which requires statistical and linguistic methods (AlMarshad et al, 2021). Cai J L pointed out that a new multi-layer convolutional network model can be used in the model construction and connection prediction of large-scale knowledge graphs, which can build highly complex knowledge graphs based on its high parameter efficiency (Cai et al, 2019).…”