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Streptococcus dentisani is a common inhabitant of the oral microbiota worldwide and is found at higher levels in caries-free individuals

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Abstract

Streptococcus dentisani has been proposed as a promising probiotic against tooth decay, due to its ability to buffer acidic pH and to inhibit the growth of oral pathogens. However, it is unknown if this bacterial species has a global distribution. The current study aimed to establish the presence of S. dentisani in oral samples from different geographic locations by identifying the sequence of its 16S rRNA gene in available datasets from across the globe. In addition, an analytical and cross-sectional study was carried out to determine if the levels of this probiotic strain are higher in caries-free individuals compared to those with dental caries. Samples from various geographical sources demonstrated that S. dentisani is present in saliva and dental plaque from individuals of different continents. Typical S. dentisani levels in saliva ranged from 104 to 105 cells/ml and a total of 106–107 cells in dental plaque. Using real-time qPCR, S. dentisani was quantified from supragingival dental plaque of 25 caries-free and 29 caries-active individuals from a Mexican children population, where significantly higher proportions of S. dentisani were found in the caries-free group (p = 0.002). Finally, a negative correlation was found between caries levels (as measured by the dmft caries index) and the percentage of S. dentisani (p < 0.001). Thus, the current manuscript indicates that this species has a global distribution, can be found in saliva and dental plaque, and appears to be present in higher numbers in plaque samples from caries-free children.

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Data availability

Original qPCR data are available from the authors upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Sandra García Esteban for assistance with laboratory work.

Funding

This project was funded by grant FAI-2017 C17-FAI-06–53.53 (Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí UASLP) from Fondo de Apoyo a la Investigación, Mexico, and by project PREVECAM reference INNVAL20/19/006 from Agencia Valenciana de Innovación (AVI), Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Dentistry, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, Mexico

    Hiram D. López-Santacruz, Vicente Esparza-Villalpando & Saray Aranda-Romo

  2. Department of Health and Genomics, Oral Microbiome Lab, FISABIO Foundation, Avda. Cataluña 21, 46020, Valencia, Spain

    Arantxa López-López, Ainhoa Revilla-Guarinos, Anny Camelo-Castillo & Alex Mira

Authors
  1. Hiram D. López-Santacruz
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  2. Arantxa López-López
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  3. Ainhoa Revilla-Guarinos
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  4. Anny Camelo-Castillo
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  5. Vicente Esparza-Villalpando
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  6. Alex Mira
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  7. Saray Aranda-Romo
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Contributions

AM and ALL conceived and designed research. HLS, VEV, and SAR recruited patients and collected samples. HLS, SAR, and ACC analyzed data. ACC and ARG reviewed literature and collected data. ALL conducted experiments. HLS and ARG made figures. AM, ARG, HLS, and SAR wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alex Mira.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the Institutional Research Ethics Committee (Code: CEIFE-021–017), San Luis Potosí, Mexico. All parents of the children who qualified for the study received information about the purpose and the procedures, signed the informed consent, and agreed to participate voluntarily in this project.

Conflict of interest

AM is the inventor of a patent protecting the use of S. dentisani as a probiotic. The other authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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López-Santacruz, H.D., López-López, A., Revilla-Guarinos, A. et al. Streptococcus dentisani is a common inhabitant of the oral microbiota worldwide and is found at higher levels in caries-free individuals. Int Microbiol 24, 619–629 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10123-021-00222-9

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