Targeting of a key pathogen in a polymicrobial infection

Abstract

The major oral diseases of caries and periodontitis are polymicrobial infections initiated by complex microbial biofilms that develop adjacent to the affected tissues. Bacterial plaque adherent to the tooth surface extends below the gingival margin and is increasingly dominated by facultative and obligate anaerobes. The dense plaque adherent to the tooth surface is in apparent equilibrium with a less structured fluid matrix that is in turn in some form of equilibrium with the biofilm adjacent to the surface of the epithelium that lines the gingival sulcus. The organisms that predominate in the epithelial biofilm are of particular interest with respect to the inflammatory disease of chronic periodontitis.