Epidemiology of Dental Caries and Immunity in Children

儿童龋齿流行病学与免疫

• 批准号: 7874484
• 负责人: NOEL K CHILDERS
• 金额: $ 104.8万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-07-24 至 2011-09-06
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7874484
• 关键词: Age-Months; Alabama; Antibodies; Bacteria; Characteristics; Child; Communicable Diseases; Complex; County; Data; Dental Care; Dental Plaque; Dental caries; Dentists; Development; Dietary Sucrose; Disease; Epidemiologist; Epidemiology; Event; Family; Family member; Genotype; Horizontal Disease Transmission; Host-Parasite Relations; Household and Family; Human; Immunity; Infant; Infection; Intake; Microbial Biofilms; Molar tooth; Mothers; Natural History; Nature; Oral cavity; Oral health; Parasites; Pathogenesis; Physicians; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Population; Preventive; Primary Dentition; Process; Public Health; Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis; Risk; Saliva; Salivary immunoglobulin A; Scientist; Site; Source; Streptococcal Infections; Streptococcus; Streptococcus mutans; Surface; Technology; Time; Tooth eruption; Tooth structure; Underserved Population; Vertical Disease Transmission; age group; deciduous tooth; high risk; improved; oral care; permanent tooth; prevent

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Dental caries is an infectious and transmissible disease worldwide. This disease is multifactorial and complex; however the basic concepts of the host/parasite relationship are important to pathogenesis. Although various bacteria are involved in the disease process, the mutans streptococci (MS) are most consistently implicated in the initiation of caries in humans. Observations in infants indicate that the initial colonization of the oral cavity with MS occurs with eruption of the primary teeth. The normal source of the initial MS infection in young children appears to be vertical transmission from the mother; however, horizontal transmission may also occur from other family members, caretakers or playmates. In addition to the natural history of infection and availability of colonization sites as well as dietary sucrose intake, there is data to indicate that the development of the host's immunity to MS is also involved in MS colonization. Caries in the primary dentition often corresponds with subsequent higher risk for caries in permanent teeth. Therefore, it is necessary to better define important characteristics of MS infections regarding their clonal development and temporal stability within dental plaque biofilms in humans. The purpose of the studies proposed is to investigate the host/parasite relationship important in the pathogenesis and epidemiology of dental caries in a stable and cooperative high caries risk population of families and children of two age groups corresponding with important tooth eruption events (i.e., primary and permanent molar teeth) associated with caries. This proposal utilizes the latest technologies including polymerase chain reaction and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis to establish the commonality of MS genotypes and stability in a defined population of children and family members. An interdisciplinary team of physicians, dentists, basic scientists, epidemiologists and statisticians has been assembled to improve our understanding of the host-parasite relationship of dental caries in children. The results of these studies should provide key information for the development of strategies to prevent this infectious disease. Additionally, the initiation of these studies in Uniontown, Alabama that is in a "Black Belt" county will provide much needed preventive oral care to children and their household family members and will partner with the Alabama Department of Public Health to arrange necessary dental care to improve oral health in this underserved population.

描述（由申请人提供）：龋齿是一种全球性的传染病。这种疾病是多因素和复杂的，然而，宿主/寄生虫关系的基本概念是重要的发病机制。虽然各种细菌参与疾病过程，但变形链球菌（MS）最一贯地与人类龋齿的发生有关。在婴儿中的观察表明，MS在口腔中的初始定植发生在乳牙萌出时。幼儿最初感染MS的正常来源似乎是母亲的垂直传播;然而，水平传播也可能发生在其他家庭成员，照顾者或玩伴。除了感染的自然史和定植位点的可用性以及膳食蔗糖摄入外，有数据表明宿主对MS的免疫力的发展也参与MS定植。乳牙列中的龋齿通常与随后恒牙中龋齿的较高风险相对应。因此，有必要更好地定义MS感染的重要特征，即它们在人类牙菌斑生物膜内的克隆发展和时间稳定性。这些研究的目的是在一个稳定和合作的高龋齿风险家庭和两个年龄组的儿童中，调查在龋齿发病机制和流行病学中重要的宿主/寄生虫关系，这两个年龄组对应于重要的牙齿萌出事件（即，乳牙和恒牙）。该提案利用最新技术，包括聚合酶链反应和脉冲场凝胶电泳，以确定MS基因型的共性和儿童和家庭成员的特定人群的稳定性。一个由医生、牙医、基础科学家、流行病学家和统计学家组成的跨学科团队已经成立，以提高我们对儿童龋齿宿主-寄生虫关系的理解。这些研究的结果应该为制定预防这种传染病的战略提供关键信息。此外，在“黑带”县亚拉巴马的尤宁敦启动这些研究将为儿童及其家庭成员提供急需的预防性口腔护理，并将与亚拉巴马公共卫生部合作，安排必要的牙科护理，以改善这一服务不足人群的口腔健康。