Polysaccharides have been found that can be used to successfully fight the bacteria that cause tooth decay

At the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, researchers are developing a new method for preventing tooth decay. Natalia Korotkova, a professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, described a targeted inhibitory approach to fighting Streptococcus mutans bacteria. These are the bacteria that cause dental caries.

The professor hopes that this work will help create a method that can successfully combat the activity of Streptococcus mutans.

Today, the only measures taken to reduce plaque on the teeth are regular professional dental cleanings, the use of special mouth rinses, and antibiotics. The latter have become a rather controversial issue. Not only are they most often unable to fight pathogenic bacteria in the oral cavity, they even kill beneficial ones.

The specialists who worked on the study found that the cell walls of Streptococcus mutans contain polysaccharides. These are needed for proper bacterial cell division and reproduction. These molecules could become a target for therapeutic agents used to suppress the growth of bacterial biofilms in the oral cavity.

The authors of the study are convinced that understanding how polysaccharides influence the reproduction of microorganisms could help lead to a new discovery in microbiology. Thanks to this, specialists will learn how bacteria maintain the necessary shape of the bacterial cell. Such research will allow them to identify new points of intervention against various bacteria and create a modern method of combating their activity.