Billions of people suffer from dental caries every year in spite of the effort to reduce the prevalence over the past few decades. Streptococcus mutans is the leading member of a specific group of cariogenic bacteria that cause dental caries. S. mutans forms biofilm, which is highly resistant to harsh environment, host immunity, and antimicrobial treatments. In this study, we found that S. mutans biofilm is highly resistant to both antimicrobial agents and lysozyme. DexA70, the truncated form of DexA (amino acids 100–732), a dextranase in S. mutans, prevents S. mutans biofilm formation and disassembles existing biofilms within minutes at nanomolar concentrations when supplied exogenously. DexA70 treatment markedly enhances biofilm sensitivity to antimicrobial agents and lysozyme, indicating its great potential in combating biofilm-related dental caries.

尽管在过去的几十年里努力降低患病率，但每年仍有数十亿人患有龋齿。 变形链球菌 是导致龋齿的特定致龋菌群的主要成员。 变形链球菌形成生物膜，对恶劣环境、宿主免疫和抗菌治疗具有高度抵抗力。在这项研究中，我们发现变形链球菌生物膜对抗菌剂和溶菌酶都具有高度抗性。DexA70，DexA（氨基酸 100-732）的截短形式，一种葡聚糖酶变形链球菌, 防止 变形链球菌当外源性提供时，生物膜形成并在几分钟内以纳摩尔浓度分解现有的生物膜。DexA70 处理显着增强了生物膜对抗菌剂和溶菌酶的敏感性，表明其在对抗与生物膜相关的龋齿方面具有巨大潜力。