Oral Yeast Carriage and Salivary Antifungal Activity

描述(申请人提供)：众所周知，口腔硬组织和软组织的维持依赖于唾液的存在，因为对唾液流动产生负面影响的情况会导致口腔健康迅速恶化。这种对唾液重要性的认识导致了主要唾液蛋白质的结构和功能特征。其中一些蛋白质在体外试验中显示出很强的抗真菌活性。虽然唾液的总抗真菌活性预计由所有单独的抗真菌成分的活性表示，但在体外用总唾液进行的检测显示出令人惊讶的很少或没有杀菌活性。我们已经证明，唾液可以通过降低或去除其电解质而变得活跃，这使得在所有唾液蛋白存在的情况下评估抗真菌活性成为可能。众所周知，健康的人在口腔条件致病菌白色念珠菌的携带者状态方面是不同的。值得注意的是，每个受口腔念珠菌病影响的受试者必须在发病前获得携带者状态。这一应用的重点是基于这样一种假设，即健康人之间唾液抗真菌能力的差异可以解释念珠菌携带水平的差异。为了研究这一点，计划1)评估唾液在自然和淡化条件下的抑菌和杀菌活性，2)调查全唾液离子强度或唾液抗真菌能力与口腔酵母携带之间的关系，3)启动对腮腺透析分泌物活性负责的成分鉴定的研究。该项目是对唾液环境中促进宿主保护的因素进行更全面调查的第一步。这里概述的实验将为更好地理解唾液在口腔中发挥的抗真菌作用机制提供基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It is well known that the maintenance of oral hard and soft tissues is dependent on the presence of saliva since conditions negatively affecting salivary flow lead to rapid deterioration of oral health. This recognition of the importance of saliva has led to the structural and functional characterization of the major salivary proteins. Some of these proteins were found to exhibit strong antifungal activity in in vitro assays. While the total salivary antifungal activity is expected to be represented by the activities of all individual antifungal components, in vitro assays with total saliva show surprisingly little or no fungicidal activity. We have shown that saliva can be rendered active by lowering or removing its electrolytes making it possible to evaluate antifungal activities in the presence of all salivary proteins. It is well known that healthy individuals differ with respect to the carrier status of the oral opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans. Notably, every subject affected with oral candidiasis must have acquired carrier status before developing the disease. The focus of this application is based on the hypothesis that differences in salivary antifungal capacity between healthy individuals may explain differences in Candida carriage levels. To investigate this, it is planned to 1) assess the full extent of fungistatic and fungicidal activities of salivary secretions under native and desalted conditions, 2) investigate whether there is a relationship between whole saliva ionic strength or salivary antifungal capacity and oral yeast carriage, 3) initiate studies on the identification of components responsible for the activity of dialyzed parotid secretion. This project is the first step toward a more comprehensive investigation of the factors which promote host protection in a salivary environment. The experiments outlined here will provide the basis for a better understanding of antifungal mechanisms exerted by saliva in the oral cavity.