Caries vaccines

Antibodies to oral streptococci can be detected in the saliva from an early age, although the pattern of response to various antigens shows great variability. Despite numerous studies, however, no conclusive evidence was found that this immune response controls developing microflora. This remains one of the great puzzles, and not only for the oral cavity, but also for other constantly colonized mucous sites-as a balance between symbiotic bacteria and host response is maintained in equilibrium? On the other hand, at present, there is abundant evidence that strongly expanded response induced by immunization or passive use of antibodies can affect their ability to colonize and/or cause disease.

Research in caries vaccine was conducted in many laboratories around the world in the last thirty years or more, and there is strong evidence that it is possible to achieve a high level of protection from caries in experimental animals with the use of vaccines that rely on intact S. mutans as an immunogen.

In the General trend in the development of other vaccines for humans, have undertaken considerable efforts to identify protection components S. mutans, in the expectation that purified subunit vaccine can cause more consistent immune response, and would be less likely than all bacteria cause any negative side effects. Although the range of cellular components were investigated, the greatest progress was achieved with the GEA drugs and cell wall proteins. There is good evidence that GPP-based vaccine can protect rats against tooth decay caused by S. sobrinus, most protective effects are limited to the smooth surface lesions. On smooth surfaces, GEA-mediated glucan formation, most likely, will be of great value for adhesion S. sobrinus that may explain the success of the GEA vaccine in this experimental model. However, the experiments were vaccinated macaques from GEA S. mutans showed no protective effect. Thus, it is necessary to carefully examine the relevance of two animal models of human diseases. The rat has a tooth morphology and structure decomposition different from the human and this is natural, not colonized S. mutans. In monkeys, as in humans, the main points of attack are in occlusive crack and remove sediment sites, S. mutans as the main body that are associated with disease progression; protection against the smooth surface of the attack, therefore, relatively little importance. In addition, many of caries vaccine experiments on rats employed S. sobrinus as the call of the body; and it is necessary to remember, that S. sobri-nus often found in less than one third of the human population and its contribution to the development of caries in humans remains unclear. Monkey experiments can offer a more suitable model of the disease, but ..