Veillonella parvula acts as a pathobiont promoting the biofilm virulence and cariogenicity of Streptococcus mutans in adult severe caries

作者：Wei Yuan, Yu Zhang, Yuan Zhuang, Yifei Tang, Hua Nie, Yequan Haung, Ting Liu, Wei-dong Yang, Fuhua Yan, Yanan Zhu · 发表于：Microbiology Spectrum · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1128/spectrum.04318-23 · 被引用次数：13 · 研究领域：Oral microbiology and periodontitis research、Dental Health and Care Utilization、Endodontics and Root Canal Treatments

ABSTRACT Adult severe caries (ASC) brings severe oral dysfunction and treatment difficulties to patients, and yet no clear pathogenic mechanism for it has been found. This study is focused on the composition of dental plaque microbiome profiles in order to identify disease-relevant species and to investigate into their interactions with the S. mutans . Samples of dental plaque were collected for metagenomic analysis. The acidification, aciduricity, oxidative stress tolerance, and gtf (glucosyltransferase) gene expression of S. mutans cocultured with V. parvula which was identified as ASC-related dominant bacterium. The biofilm formation and extracellular exopolysaccharide (EPS) synthesis of dual-strain were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), crystal violet (CV) staining, live/dead bacterial staining, and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Furthermore, rodent model experiments were performed to validate the in vivo cariogenicity of the dual-species biofilm. The most significantly abundant taxon found associated with ASC was V. parvula . In vitro experiments found that V. parvula can effectively promote S. mutans mature biofilm formation with enhanced acid resistance, hydrogen peroxide detoxicity, and biofilm virulence. Rodent model experiments revealed that V. parvula was incapable of causing disease on its own, but it significantly heightened the biofilm virulence of S. mutans when being co-infected and augmented the progression, quantity, and severity o...