The literature about periodontal micro flora till date is not complete as most of the studies till date have explored the disease causing bacteria. Only few studies have actually tried to explore the health associated bacteria and even with these studies the limitations in the bio techniques have given us incomplete data. I read a recent news about a group coming out with narroe spectrun atibiotics which is supposed to target only the diease causing bacteria and leaving the health associated bacteria intact. My question is " with linited knowledge of the health associated bacteria in the oral cavity and it possible intreactions, using such drugs is really beneficial??"
Here is what the Prof Brogden from Univ of Iowa has to say:
"We are developing an antibiotic that can target and kill a particular pathogen without harming or altering the composition of the normal, more beneficial bacteria in the body. Such a product would provide a variety of new treatments for oral diseases as well as a means of prevention."
Prof Brogden attached a broad sepctrumantibiotic to a protein that targets the specific receptor on the cell wall of the bacteria. When this narrow spectrum antibiotic was tried on a mix of bacteria, it only killed P. gingivalis, whicle leaving the other to bacteria as it is.
Certainly P.gingivalis is known to be involved in periodontal disease but I imagine that out knowledge about oral bacteria and their interactions needs to be better understood brfore we attempt to nuke our mouth with antibiotics, which have their own set of side effects.
Any comments and dicussion on this topic is welcome.
Adapted from Scientific Daily ( from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/04/090401200431.htm)
Here is what the Prof Brogden from Univ of Iowa has to say:
"We are developing an antibiotic that can target and kill a particular pathogen without harming or altering the composition of the normal, more beneficial bacteria in the body. Such a product would provide a variety of new treatments for oral diseases as well as a means of prevention."
Prof Brogden attached a broad sepctrumantibiotic to a protein that targets the specific receptor on the cell wall of the bacteria. When this narrow spectrum antibiotic was tried on a mix of bacteria, it only killed P. gingivalis, whicle leaving the other to bacteria as it is.
Certainly P.gingivalis is known to be involved in periodontal disease but I imagine that out knowledge about oral bacteria and their interactions needs to be better understood brfore we attempt to nuke our mouth with antibiotics, which have their own set of side effects.
Any comments and dicussion on this topic is welcome.
Adapted from Scientific Daily ( from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/04/090401200431.htm)
1 comments:
I feel that having new tools, increasing our therapeutic arsenal to treat peridontal disease could be important for our patients. Only future studies could guide us about the microbiological and clinical benefits of this new drug in a long term. More than 500 bacterial taxa have been identified in the periodontal pocket maybe there are more taxas there and the related studies are limited but we continue using antibiotics in some patients for example with aggressive forms of periodontitis,we also select the patients, take care of the side effects, and consider resistance to antibiotics. Hope this new drug help us to treat periodontal patients, hope without side effects, no resistance, very cheap
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