A study comparing antimicrobial peptides, or AMPs, a group of small proteins that occur naturally in human saliva and act like antibiotics against oral bacteria, could lead to new ways to screen children for risk of tooth decay and protect them against this common, chronic problem.
The study, “Salivary Antimicrobial Peptide Expression and Dental Caries Experience in Children,” published in the September 2005 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, involved oral examinations performed on 149 middle school children. Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle set out to determine a possible correlation between dental caries (tooth decay) prevalence in children and salivary concentrations of three types of antimicrobial peptides.
Antimicrobial peptides, or AMPs, are one of the body's natural defenses against bacteria, targeting and killing invading microbes.
Results found that children with no tooth decay had higher levels of one particular type of AMP ( alpha-defensin) than children with tooth decay. Therefore, low levels of alpha-defensin might be a biological factor that contributes to making some children naturally more susceptible to tooth decay.
“We know that sometimes children who take good care of their teeth still get cavities, and that other children, who don't take care of their teeth, don't get cavities, so dental researchers think that some people have better natural defenses against tooth decay than others,” said Dr. Beverly Dale, professor of oral biology at the University of Washington and corresponding author of the study.