Salivary biomarkers for dental caries

Abstract

As a highly prevalent multifactorial disease, dental caries afflicts a large proportion of the world's population. As teeth are constantly bathed in saliva, the constituents and properties of this oral fluid play an essential role in the occurrence and progression of dental caries. Various inorganic (water and electrolytes) and organic (proteins and peptides) components may protect teeth from dental caries. This occurs via several functions, such as clearance of food debris and sugar, aggregation and elimination of microorganisms, buffering actions to neutralize acid, maintaining supersaturation with respect to tooth mineral, participation in formation of the acquired pellicle and antimicrobial defense. Modest evidence is available on the associations between dental caries and several salivary parameters, including flow rate, buffering capacity and abundance of mutans streptococci. Despite some controversial findings, the main body of the literature supports an elevated caries prevalence and/or incidence among people with a pathologically low saliva flow rate, compromised buffering capacity and early colonization or high titer of mutans streptococci in saliva. The evidence remains weak and/or inconsistent on the association between dental caries and other saliva parameters, such as other possible cariogenic species (Lactobacillus spp., Streptococcus sanguis group, Streptococcus salivarius, Actinomyces spp. and Candida albicans), diversity of saliva microbiomes, inorganic and organic constituents (electrolytes, immunoglobulins, other proteins and peptides) and some functional properties (sugar clearance rate, etc.). The complex interactions between salivary components and functions suggest that saliva has to be considered in its entirety to account for its total effects on teeth.

Novel Protein-Repellent and Antibacterial Resins and Cements to Inhibit Lesions and Protect Teeth

“…Quaternary ammonium methacrylates (QAMs) have been incorporated into dental resins to inhibit bacterial growth and plaque formation because of their excellent antibacterial potency [14][15][16][17]. Salivary proteins in the mouth can adhere to a clean polymer surface, providing anchor points for bacteria attachment, which is the first step in biofilm formation [18,19]. Accordingly, efforts were made to develop novel protein-repellent dental materials to prevent the adsorption of proteins from the acquired pellicle [11,20,21].…”

Antimicrobial peptide GH12 targetsStreptococcus mutansto arrest caries development in rats

“…Related microorganisms include acidogenic/aciduric bacteria such as S. mutans and lactobacilli, fungi such as Candida albicans, and bacteria facilitating caries onset and development, such as Veillonella parvula [3,4]. However, S. mutans is still believed to be the principle cariogenic bacterium [5]. S. mutans possesses primary acidogenic and aciduric abilities causing unbalanced pH fluctuations even under salivary buffering, and it can produce large amounts of exopolysaccharides (EPS), which contribute greatly to biofilm formation [6,7].…”

Salivary Immunoglobulin A in Relation to the Viable Count of Mutans Streptococci in Children with Early Childhood Caries

“…Salivary Immunoglobulin A (SIgA) is the prevalent type in the salivary secretion, SIgA role in the oral cavity against different species of bacteria viruses, other types of microorganisms, by: bacterial adherence inhibition, neutralizing effect, agglutination, IgA presence in breast milk especially colostrum give further defense against microorganisms in the oral cavity in addition to the GIT [38], [13].…”

“…Saliva is a pure, to some extent acidic mucoserous exocrine excretion. saliva is a "complicated mixture of liquids" from the major salivay glands (two parotids, two submandibular and two sublingual) and minor salivary glands and also other sources like gingival crevicular fluid, which is (non-glandular), microorganisms, and also from the host diet, "whole saliva" is the term used to describe the non-pure fluid and separate it from the glandular secretion, Saliva have distinct role in the oral cavity in initiation or prevention of: the caries, accumulation of bacteria, entrance of foreign bacteria, virus, fungi, also in the balance between intrinsic and extrinsic factors [10], [11], [12], [13]. In Iraq, no previous researches studied the correlation between these two variables in the different stages of the ECC, and the present research was designed to find this subject.…”