Slashdot Mirror
Chinese Scientists Are Developing A Vaccine Against Cavities (nature.com)
A vaccine against tooth decay "is urgently needed" writes Nature -- and a team of Chinese scientists is getting close. hackingbear writes:
Scientists at Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences developed low side effects and high protective efficiency using flagellin-rPAc fusion protein KFD2-rPAc, a promising vaccine candidate. In rat challenge models, KFD2-rPAc induces a robust rPAc-specific IgA response, and confers efficient prophylactic and therapeutic efficiency as does KF-rPAc, while the flagellin-specific inflammatory antibody responses are highly reduced.
I've seen this one.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
at a minimum brush before going to bed, floss once per day, drink water instead of soda/juices/energy drinks, and go to your dentist every 6-12 months. if your teeth are already hurting, you're likely past the stage of a simple filling and will need a root canal/crown or extraction/implant.
I wonder what causes some people to be prone and others not? I've never had a cavity at 37, nor has my father at 67. My mother, however, has had many. Same with my sister. Everyone has great dental hygiene.
fuck, too late. -_-
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
If this actually kills off the bacteria causing cavities, it may also get rid of the plaque biofilms that they produce. This could be a very big deal - those biofilm plaques are also a reason for arterial plaques that cause heart disease.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/35989527/ns/health-oral_health/t/moms-kiss-can-spread-cavities-baby/#.VhOnY-Sli1F
isn't caused by a virus.
So, what ? You can produce anti-bodies against (and thus basically vaccinate against) nearly anything that has big enough molecules to be recognized by an antibody pouch....
It is caused by metabolic by-products of bacteria
You could in theory try to vaccinate against the bacteria producing them.
bacteria practically living outside the body.
so are antibodies : they can be secreted and thus they too can be found outside of the body.
the current MAIN problem might end up that these bacteria, however problematic at causing cavities, still have an important role to play at training the immune system.
you might end up with a slightly increased risk of oral cancers.
(I think to remember something like this regarding past attempts. Must mine literature...)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
It might as well be Egyptian hieroglyphics.
THis is how the zombie apocalypse starts.
Dr Weston A. Price, a dentist practicing in the USA, travelled widely and examined people of nearly a dozen "native" cultures ranging from the Inuit and Native Americans to the Masai and other East African tribes, inhabitants of New Guinea and Peru, and people living in isolated parts of Switzerland and Scotland. Those peoples all ate traditional diets, of varying composition - some including grain and others not.
Very few of them had any tooth decay or gum disease, and the less grain and sweet foods they ate, the less dental harm they suffered. None of them had ever brushed their teeth, and they didn't need to - except to make their breath sweeter for the sake of others.
Immediately those same people began eating "civilized" foods - mainly white flour products and sugar - their dental health became dreadful within a few years.
https://www.westonaprice.org/h...
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
A personal anecdote - but one approved and confirmed as general dentist wisdom by a friend of mine who is a dentist.
I always had problems with cavities, since my youth there never was a dentist visit where they didn't drill. About 7 years ago I drastically cut back on sugar, not because of teeth but because of other issues (now resolved).
I used to be a typical German: I could not live without a bakery. I ate loads of bread, pasta, pizza (but actually good one) - and between meals not infrequently cookies or a piece of cake. I also ate quite a lot of chocolate and other sweets, always desert. LOTS and lots of fruit (self-made fruit salad!)
Before I give you the wrong idea that I may have to mention I never had a weight issue, I was very active too..Not that you think what I'm saying only applies to obese people and so what I'm writing does not apply to others. I could easily - and I mean easily - run a half marathon (never tried more than that), just for fun.
Anyway, my health issues forced me to experiment. To cut the story short and leave out all the experiments and everything in between, without consulting any book or "nutritionist", only learning to read and listen to what my own body was telling me, I ended up eating very few "carbs" (not the chemical meaning of the word but the kinds of foods). I almost never buy anything from the bakery, except for (very good!) white bread, which lasts two weeks or so (or even more). NO chocolate, no cake, no cookies. Very few fruits, and even less of the sweet kinds of fruits. Almost never bread, almost never pasta, almost never potatoes. NO SUGAR. Again, no extremes: I'm sure one or the other salad dressing I got when I didn't eat at home had sugar. I would not even mind eating a piece of cake now and then - if only I had any appetite for that stuff. I never do, not any more.
I don't have to force myself to any of it, it comes naturally now!
On the other hand, I eat a lot less meat than in the past too. Again not because of some "nutrition advice" that I follow, I really can't!
But I could never eat something as extreme as an Atkins diet. I _do_ need carbs (that's why the white bread), just very little. I could also never go without meat, go full vegetarian. No extremes (unless "No sweets" is something you consider extreme).
What I eat a lot more of: Fat and vegetables. Fat in the form of olive oil, nuts (lots! - what is the English word for "Nussmus"??? Darn!), cream. Quite abit of dairy, but zero milk, all in the form of cheese and other kinds of milk that went through bacterial processing.
MY TEETH:
I have suddenly had ZERO problems with my teeth for years! A complete change! And I don't even need to brush my teeth. Okay, for breath :-) Not a single cavity anywhere. My dentist friend just said "Of course, if you leave out the sugar that's to be expected."
I can't imagine how poor the mother's dental hygiene was for that kind of transfer to happen.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
"I wonder what causes some people to be prone and others not?"
Combination of dental hygiene, genetics, and environmental factors such as untreated water.
Xylitol sweetener kills h pylori, a bacteria that causes tooth decay and gastric ulcers. This has been known for a long time. Ask your toothpaste maker why they don't sweeten the product with xylitol. Note also that xylitol does not cause a big jump in blood glucose & insulin like many sweeteners. Taste is OK, better than stevia. And to top it off, you don't have to pay the premium price for a patented product.
...omphaloskepsis often...
I once read a story about a guy who developed bacteria that convert food into (tiny amounts of) alcohol instead of acid. He also bred them to out-compete the normal tooth bacteria. But because they're genetically engineered, they couldn't be developed for human use.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
My parents both have a lot of cavities, as do I, though I was cavity-free from 18 to 38.
I rarely eat sugar.
My buddy who is 32, he proudly eats a lot of sugar, swishes it in his mouth, and has never had a cavity nor is he even much overweight despite eating so much sugar. And he never flosses.
Over 50 and no cavities and usually brush once a day with a Sonicare. Other family members have similar history. I suspect it is related to genetics and saliva production and ph. Dry mouth can lead to an increase in cavities.
Fluoride rinse induces "remineralization" I've personally seen it. If you have a soft spot in a tooth, using fluoride rinse twice a day will help harden it back up (remineralize it) with a few days.
It's a very powerful product.
Ethylene glycol
Phosphorous powder
Lead
Bits of plastic and metal shards
Export finished product (toothpaste, baby formula, pet food, etc.) to Belize for Latin American distribution.
Have gnu, will travel.
Good thing it will be test on the Chinese, and not me. What could go wrong? Your microbiome tries to escape through your nose.
Well now there's an awkward subject.
Vaccination (challenging the immune system with a substance related to the pathogen, to promote directed response, such as antibody generation) is a class of immunizations that works fine against both viruses and bacteria, and to varying degrees to other components of disease processes. Diptheriia, tetanus, and whooping cough, for example, are all bacterial diseases.
Vaccination originally meant the specific challenge of a deliberate infection with cowpox virus (ariolae vaccinae) to promote immunity to the related smallpox virus. It has since been applied to other immunizations that involve a challenge with a related substance or a component of a killed pathogen (but not the live pathogen itself - which is "innoculation"). This usage was promoted by Pasteur, in order to honor Jenner, who developed the smallpox vaccination.
Antibodies from the blood pass freely into saliva and remain active there, so an immunization against dental caries bacteria has been known to be possible for decades. But tooth decay bacteria are a problem for vaccine development.
They avoid the immune system by displaying surface proteins that are similar to those on the heart. This both reduces the immune systems willingness to attack them and leads to autoimmune attacks on the heart and circulatory system if the immune system DOES go after them. (This is why dentists may prescribe prophylactic antibiotic doses before certain procedures that are likely to result in decay bacteria being transferred to the bloodstream.)
Before molecular biology, vaccines were typically made by growing the pathogen, killing it, and producing a sterile, injectable, mixture containing its components (along with an irritant to convince the immune system there's something that needs its attention). Doing this with dental caries would lead to heart problems, so tooth decay vaccines have not been pursued until recently.
By selecting a conserved (doesn't change much because it has to be this way to work) surface component (so the bug will have trouble evolving away from susceptibility to the immunization) that does NOT look to the immune system like some part of the body, and using that as the challenge agent, it should be possible to come up with an immunization to the common tooth decay bacteria.
Which seems to be what is being done here.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
in poor areas where you don't have regular access to mouthwash.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
The article mentions the species Strep Mutans. There are ~500 species of bacteria that live in a person's mouth. S. Mutans isn't the only species that consumes sugars and excretes the acid that causes cavities. It's just the species that does it best.
I would assume that removing one species of bacteria would make room for another to step up and cause the same problems.
From one of Price's more critical reviews:
"Price made a whirlwind tour of primitive areas, examined the natives superficially, and jumped to simplistic conclusions. While extolling their health, he ignored their short life expectancy and high rates of infant mortality, endemic diseases, and malnutrition. While praising their diets for not producing cavities, he ignored the fact that malnourished people don't usually get many cavities."
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
I talked to a group working on a vaccine for dental caries about 15 years ago. When I asked who they were targeting, the reply was head and neck cancer patients. When you get cancer in this area and go in for radiotherapy, the salivary glands are often unintended targets of the radiation and die. This, in turn, leads to massive dental caries problems in the patients, so much so that they are sometimes advised to have their teeth pulled before therapy begins.
With the rise of highly targeted multi-beam radiotherapy, I'm not sure if the problem is still as bad as it was though. Don't smoke.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
That eating sweets was bad for the teeth is common enough knowledge pretty much everywhere. but as you can easily see, it has little to no effect on the population.
What surprised me was the HUGE effect - that the problems went down to zero, and I'm not even doing anything extreme. I mean, I don't even try to avoid every last grain of sugar.
Before that I would have expected for the problems to become less, maybe even much less. But down to zero??? And I can now do pretty much whatever I want, without any punishment from my teeth, as I mentioned, even not brushing teeth is okay.
There is even more:
I used to always have teeth that required the occasional use of special toothpaste that had a very high fluoride content. When I only used normal toothpaste - even though it still had fluoride - my teeth would soon start to hurt, just being touched by the toothbrush was painful on some teeth.
I have been using zero(!)-fluoride toothpaste for the last couple of years! No problems at all. If I had tried that 10 years ago it would have been terrible.
So, knowing "too much sugar is bad for teeth" did not prepare me for the shear magnitude of the effect!
Why can't they let us edit comments for 5 minutes after posting...the preview does not help, I always discover the typos only after I submit the comment. Sigh.
The following tooth treatments discourage cavity-causing bacteria and encourage remineralisation of teeth:
* Arginine-containing toothpaste -- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
* CPP-ACP-containing treatment -- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
As far as I know, the number of current manufacturers of these treatments are limited, with Colgate Pro-Argin for arginine-containing toothpaste, and GC Tooth Mousse for CPP-ACP.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
Vaccines can target bacteria (e.g. tuberculosis), therefore there is nothing that would prevent one for cavity immunity from working.
However, a major factor deciding cavity incidence is the type of resident flora. Some people do have their mouth populated with bacteria that inhibit naturally cavity-inducing bacteria. Theoretically a strong antibiotic regimen followed by beneficial bacteria inoculation would be all that's needed.
I guess that there are strong financial interests to not solve the cavity issue though
Sorta, yeah.... but reasonably, that's the only possibility. While it's true that bacteria that causes cavities *CAN* be possibly exchanged by saliva transfer, it's something that's not particularly common, because the quantity of saliva that has to be exchanged would generally need to be pretty high (like on the order of one person practically sticking their tongue directly into the other's mouth) or else the bacteria that causes such health issues would need to be *VERY* abundant so that a smaller quantity of saliva transfer is sufficient to cause a problem.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
There are proteins attached to the surface of teeth that are genetically determined, as well as the roughness of the surface itself. These affect how food and bacteria attach and thrive on teeth. I don't have the reference, but there was a study that found they could predict how many cavities a person would have in their lifetime by identifying the proteins on each tooth, plus or minus one cavity (probably related to behavior and diet). The study may not have been good (again, no reference), but would help explain why people with identical diets and hygiene have such wildly different dental issues, and dispel a lot of the insufferable judgment given by people who were lucky enough to never have significant problems, even if understanding didn't lead to a direct treatment.
Meth Mouth FTW
The first cure for cavities I heard of uses ultrasonic waves. They are using it for expensive experimental tooth replacement surgery but not for cavities.
The second one involved a version of common mouth bacteria that was altered to not cause cavities and out-breed the ones that do. One inexpensive treatment and you would be cavity-free for life. Human trials were banned "in case it got out into the wild" (the reason this was a bad thing was never stated but it is presumably because it would put most dentists out of business).
There was a third one a few years ago but I didn't keep track of it because I was starting to see a pattern in the life cycle of this sort of research.
Dustin S
Or, possibly, it's caused by hundreds of low-level but repeated exposures like kisses and sharing food. Many mothers (and fathers) pre-chew little pieces of tough food for their babies as they first start to wean, or play the "look, mummy's loves this food" game where mum takes a bite first to prove to the skeptical kid that puréed broccoli is "delicious".
People that go to the dentist like they should have the most problems. Don't let them put that cavity prevention crap on your teeth. It just holds bacteria in.
What will it do to the digestive system? There's a shit-ton of bacteria in your mouth and a lot of them you need. Not being able to properly digest food versus not so bad breath? The ADA would never allow a miracle vaccine for this if it really works.
> But I think you went overboard with the bread and pasta and stuff.
Please reread :-)
Why do you write something that somebody else already said and that I had already responded to? See by phantomfive's comment and my reply to it.
I have read somewhere that semen can give you cavities.
...which is why it's recommended for parents to NOT put their baby's pacifier in their own mouth.
BMA-RPAC-19, partial [Brugia malayi]
1 mtslldserk veildvdsfr sdpsnltvil yeedhtigns lkhvlckmrd vefcgynvph
61 pledkilirl qtkrgvsaas mlmkgfeele cifasirqkf dssyalyttn ted
Basepair 37 as driven by Basepair 39
moo
For at least some of us it is partially genetic. There is a gene most commonly found alongside red hair which I myself carry. Rather than just having those big root nerves I have tiny tendrils of nerve tissue throughout my enamel. Because teeth are actually porous and not solid that not only leads to decay but the decay is far more serious once it begins because the nerves provide a path of tissue for the bacteria to follow. Even a cleaning is extremely painful for me and it has taken a long time to find a dentist office that will accept that cleanings aren't painless and give me sedation..
They did this already...why is it news now?
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2001/10/vaccine-prevents-cavities/
http://harvardmagazine.com/2002/01/vaccine-for-tooth-decay.html
My understanding from a fair bit of previous reading (and research into preventing cavities):
Your mouth is a sea of bacteria and, like your body as a whole, the exact makeup of that bacteria varies from person to person but develops when you're an infant and is generally consistent to the individual over their lifetime (excluding infections which are a separate case). These cultures Some of that bacteria break down food and create chemicals that attack your enamel more than others. Sometimes greatly more.
Scientists have attempted to wipe out the bacteria cultures in individuals mouths' and replace the bacteria that are dangerous to the enamel with ones from other cultures which don't have that problem. Unfortunately the bacteria in your mouth/body is very pervasive and virtually impossible to wipe out and replace without resorting to drastic measures which are worse than the problem they're trying to solve.
Tin hat theory says dental associations fight this stuff because it will majorly impact their business. I don't exactly believe the first part, but the second is certainly true.
I've NFI what TFS actually means (this being /. and not a biological research site) but i'm guessing they're developing something which will attack bad bacteria in your mouth and immunize you. Maybe. Or maybe the chinese are just doing their usual crazy half-working, overpromised, under-delivered nonsense.
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
More so than that...an individual develops bacteria in their mouth at a very young age and it's virtually impossible to wipe it out and replace it.
Now, when you're an infant you haven't done that yet and it's another story. Maybe we should stop tongue kissing infants...unless you don't have cavities? lol
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
I wonder what causes some people to be prone and others not? I've never had a cavity at 37, nor has my father at 67. My mother, however, has had many. Same with my sister. Everyone has great dental hygiene.
You may have grown up and drank fluoridated water. Naturally fluoridated or low floride levels added to city water are not dangerous or toxic, even if boiled to reduce the water in food by 10000 times. Fluoride is said, prevents tooth decay.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada