Phorphynomonas gingivalis in News Again

Phorphynomonas gingivalis has recently been in news again! One of the reason that brought P. gingivaalis into news again was the findings of the research from Nihon University Japan. They found out that P. gingivalis strongly facilitated the reactivation of HIV-1 by high production of butyric acid. This study showed that P. gingivalis could act as a risk factor for HIV-1 in latently infected individuals (1).

Another study in smokers also got P.gingivalis into focus. In smokers the cigarette smoke is found to alter some of the genes of P. gingivalis associated with its virulence, detoxification, DNA repair, and oxidative stress mechanism. This results in changes with protein expression in the cell membrane, which affects the bacterial cell characteristics and how immune system recognizes it. These results could possibly explain why smokers are resistant to periodontal treatment and are more susceptible to oral disease caused by P. gingivalis.

References:

1.IADR2009, abstract #1703, "Reactivation of Latent HIV-1 by
Porphyromonas gingivalis Involves Histone Modifcation", by K. Ochiai
et al., of Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan

2. Tobacco-induced alterations to Porphyromonas gingivalis–host interactions
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121659253/abstract