| REVIEW ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2018 | Volume
: 10
| Issue : 2 | Page : 121-125 |
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Dental caries vaccine: An overview
Bhawna Arora1, Vikas Setia1, Amandeep Kaur2, Mridul Mahajan3, Harveen Kaur Sekhon3, Harpreet Singh4
1 Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Adesh Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Bathinda, Punjab, India
2 Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Adesh Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Bathinda, Punjab, India
3 Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology, Adesh Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Bathinda, Punjab, India
4 Department of Public Health and Dentistry, Punjab Government Dental College and Hospital, Amritsar, Punjab, India
Correspondence Address:
Bhawna Arora
Department of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry, Adesh Institute of Dental Sciences and Research, Bathinda, Punjab
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/IJDS.IJDS_128_17
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Can infection with the dental caries pathogen, Streptococcus mutans, be intercepted or modified immunologically? Resolving this question requires answer to many questions: What are the pathways by which this cariogenic streptococcus enters and accumulates in the dental biofilm? Can bacterial components associated with virulence induce immune responses? What is the level of maturity of immune pathways in the oral cavity of the young child at the time of infection? Many such questions have been answered. For example, preclinical application of modern methods of mucosal vaccine design and delivery has routinely resulted in protection from dental caries caused by S. mutans infection, using antigens involved in the sucrose-independent or sucrose-dependent mechanisms of infection by these cariogenic streptococci. Passive administration of antibody to functional epitopes of S. mutans virulence antigens has also provided a degree of protection in preclinical studies and small-scale human investigations. The caries-protective capacity of active immunization with dental caries vaccines now awaits proof of principle in pediatric clinical trials.
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