By IANS
New York : Bacteria that cause cavities in teeth will soon be literally stewing in their own juices and become self-destructive, a new study says.
Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center have identified the genes that allow bacteria that eat sugar and release cavity causing acids to survive in their own acid.
And they contend that if these genes are manipulated, the bacteria would be killed by their own acids, dramatically reducing tooth decay.
The cavity causing bacteria, known as Streptococcus mutans or S. mutans, manage to survive in their own acids thanks largely to an enzyme called fatty acid biosynthase M (FabM).
The researchers say that when FabM is shut down, S. mutans become almost 10,000 times more vulnerable to acid damage.
The researchers also suspect that FabM or one of its relatives may also help all Streptococci (strep) and Staphylococci (staph) infections to resist the human body’s defences, which include immune cells that subject bacteria to acid.
Between them, strep and staph bacteria are responsible for meningitis, pneumonia, sepsis, methicillin-resistant staph aureus, the “flesh-eating” infection (fasciitis), as well as infections on heart valves and around stents.
“Our first goal is to force the major bacterium behind tooth decay to destroy itself with its own acid as soon as it eats sugar,” said lead researcher Robert G. Quivey.
“After that, this line of work could help lead to new anti-bacterial combination therapies for many infections that have become resistant to antibiotics,” he said.