title: Treatment of Oral Multispecies Biofilms by an Anti-Biofilm Peptide.
abstract: Human oral biofilms are multispecies microbial communities that exhibit high resistance to antimicrobial agents. Dental plaque gives rise to highly prevalent and costly biofilm-related oral infections, which lead to caries or other types of oral infections. We investigated the ability of the recently identified anti-biofilm peptide 1018 to induce killing of bacterial cells present within oral multispecies biofilms. At 10 μg/ml (6.5 μM), peptide 1018 was able to significantly (p<0.05) prevent biofilm formation over 3 days. The activity of the peptide on preformed biofilms was found to be concentration-dependent since more than 60% of the total plaque biofilm cell population was killed by 10 μg/ml of peptide 1018 in 3 days, while at 5 μg/ml 50% of cells were dead and at 1 μg/ml the peptide triggered cell death in around 30% of the total bacterial population, as revealed by confocal microscopy. The presence of saliva did not affect peptide activity, since no statistically significant difference was found in the ability of peptide 1018 to kill oral biofilms using either saliva coated and non-saliva coated hydroxyapatite surfaces. Scanning electron microscopy experiments indicated that peptide 1018 induced cell lysis in plaque biofilms. Furthermore, combined treatment using peptide 1018 and chlorhexidine (CHX) increased the anti-biofilm activity of each compound compared to when these were used alone, resulting in >50% of the biofilm being killed and >35% being dispersed in only 3 minutes. Peptide 1018 may potentially be used by itself or in combination with CHX as a non-toxic and effective anti-biofilm agent for plaque disinfection in clinical dentistry.
authors.affiliation: Division of Endodontics, Department of Oral Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; The State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Basic Science of Stomatology (Hubei-MOST) & Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedicine Ministry of Education, School & Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University, 237 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhejun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Centre for Microbial Diseases and Immunity Research, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Cesar
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: de la Fuente-Núñez
authors.affiliation: Division of Endodontics, Department of Oral Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Ya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Division of Endodontics, Department of Oral Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haapasalo
authors.affiliation: Centre for Microbial Diseases and Immunity Research, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Robert E W
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Hancock
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018441:Biofilms / Q000187:drug effects*; D002710:Chlorhexidine / Q000494:pharmacology; D003773:Dental Plaque / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D013293:Enterococcus faecalis / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D009067:Mouthwashes / Q000494:pharmacology; D013295:Streptococcus mutans / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D023181:Antimicrobial Cationic Peptides; D009067:Mouthwashes; C555052:innate defense regulating peptide 1018; D002710:Chlorhexidine