Isolation and characterization of streptococcus mutans phage as a possible treatment agent for caries

Hadar Ben-Zaken, Reut Kraitman, Shunit Coppenhagen-Glazer, Leron Khalifa, Sivan Alkalay-Oren, Daniel Gelman, Gilad Ben-Gal, Nurit Beyth, Ronen Hazan*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

Streptococcus mutans is a key bacterium in dental caries, one of the most prevalent chronic infectious diseases. Conventional treatment fails to specifically target the pathogenic bacteria, while tending to eradicate commensal bacteria. Thus, caries remains one of the most common and challenging diseases. Phage therapy, which involves the use of bacterial viruses as anti-bacterial agents, has been gaining interest worldwide. Nevertheless, to date, only a few phages have been isolated against S. mutans. In this study, we describe the isolation and characterization of a new S. mutans phage, termed SMHBZ8, from hundreds of human saliva samples that were collected, filtered, and screened. The SMHBZ8 genome was sequenced and analyzed, visualized by TEM, and its antibacterial properties were evaluated in various states. In addition, we tested the lytic efficacy of SMHBZ8 against S. mutans in a human cariogenic dentin model. The isolation and characterization of SMHBZ8 may be the first step towards developing a potential phage therapy for dental caries.

Original languageEnglish
Article number825
JournalViruses
Volume13
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 May 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • Bacteriophage
  • Biofilm
  • Dental caries
  • Phage therapy
  • S. mutans
  • S. mutans phage

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