Ceramide Phosphoethanolamine as a Possible Marker of Periodontal Disease

Abstract

Periodontal disease is a chronic oral inflammatory disorder initiated by pathobiontic bacteria found in dental plaques—complex biofilms on the tooth surface. The disease begins as an acute local inflammation of the gingival tissue (gingivitis) and can progress to periodontitis, which eventually leads to the formation of periodontal pockets and ultimately results in tooth loss. The main problem in periodontology is that the diagnosis is based on the assessment of the already obvious tissue damage. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the current diagnostics used to assess periodontal disease. Using lipidomic analyses, we show that both crucial periodontal pathogens, Porphyromonas gingivalis and Tannerella forsythia, synthesize ceramide phosphoethanolamine (CPE) species, membrane sphingolipids not typically found in vertebrates. Previously, it was shown that this particular lipid can be specifically detected by an aegerolysin protein, erylysin A (EryA). Here, we show that EryA can specifically bind to CPE species from the total lipid extract from P. gingivalis. Furthermore, using a fluorescently labelled EryA-mCherry, we were able to detect CPE species in clinical samples of dental plaque from periodontal patients. These results demonstrate the potential of specific periodontal pathogen-derived lipids as biomarkers for periodontal disease and other chronic inflammatory diseases.

Comparative Lipidomics of Oral Commensal and Opportunistic Bacteria

“…However, we only m itored these GPL-modified ceramides and their mannosyl derivatives in C. albicans (S plementary Tables). These data are consistent with previous evaluations of IPCs and m nosyl IPCs in fungi [74][75][76][77].…”

“…PE-Cer 35:0;O3, was tentatively identified as PE-Cer d18:0/h17:0 based on the MS 2 product ions (PE = 140.0118; 0.58 ppm) − and (HFA 17:0 = 285.2435; 0.073 ppm) − . Cer d18:0/h17:0, also termed pecipamide (Lipid Maps, LMSP02020019), has been monitored in the fungus Polyporus picipes [77]. This is the first report of a PE-modification of this lipid, which we detected in P. gingivalis (Supplementary Tables).…”