In situ analysis of bacterial biosynthetic activity in subgingival plaque

描述（由申请人提供）：牙周病是由牙龈下细菌群落引起的，并导致牙齿支撑结构的破坏。这些疾病是通过临床参数进行回顾性诊断的，然而，这些参数是正在进行的疾病活动或未来依恋丧失的不良指标。一个重要的研究目标是设计一种方法来确定患者口腔中有牙周病进展风险的部位，从而允许针对特定部位的预防治疗。我们假设潜在病原体如牙龈卟啉单胞菌的活跃细胞分裂与牙周病在特定部位的进展有关。为了验证这一假设，一种新的基于pcr的分子方法将用于实时测量从健康和疾病部位收集的人类牙龈下菌斑样本中牙龈假单胞菌细胞的生物合成和生长活性。该项目将测试牙龈卟啉卟啉生长活性在人类受试者的疾病部位比在健康部位更大的假设。该结果将为未来的纵向研究奠定基础，以评估这种方法的有效性，针对牙龈假单胞菌以及其他牙周微生物，作为牙周病进展的临床有用预测因子。类似的方法也可以应用于其他慢性多因素疾病。当应用于微生物学规模时，这些方法也可以显着提高我们对包括龈下生物膜在内的多物种群落中特定微生物活性的理解。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Periodontal diseases are induced by communities of subgingival bacteria and result in destruction of supporting structures of the teeth. The diseases are diagnosed retrospectively by clinical parameters, however these parameters are poor indicators of ongoing disease activity or future attachment loss. An important research goal is to devise a means to identify sites in patients' mouths that are at risk of periodontal disease progression, thereby allowing site-specific preventive therapy. We hypothesize that active cell division of potential pathogens such as Porphyromonas gingivalis correlates with periodontal disease progression at specific sites. To test this hypothesis, a novel PCR-based molecular approach will be used to measure, in real time, the biosynthetic and growth activity of P. gingivalis cells in human subgingival plaque samples collected from healthy and disease sites. The project will test the hypothesis that P. gingivalis growth activity is greater in disease sites than in healthy sites of human subjects. The results will set the stage for future longitudinal studies that evaluate the efficacy of this approach, targeted to P. gingivalis as well as to other periodontal microorganisms, as clinically useful predictors of periodontal disease progression. Similar approaches also could be applied to other chronic, multifactorial diseases. When applied on a microbiomic scale, these methods could also significantly improve our understanding of specific microbiological activities within multi-species consortia including subgingival biofilms.