Dental News - NIH grants $2 million for research into oral disease

Dental Tribune International

Tue. 27 March 2012

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BETHESDA, Md., USA: The National Institutes of Health has granted $2 million to a collaborative research project at the University of Bristol, U.K. The funds will be used to gain new insights into the role of Candida albicans in periodontal diseases.

The research project led by Prof. Howard Jenkinson, Head of Research at the School of Oral and Dental Sciences, has been funded by the NIH since 2006. The renewed funding allows for this project to be extended for another five years to continue the investigation into the mechanisms by which these microbes cause infections and into better ways to control them.

Previous studies by Jenkinson and his team have shown that C. albicans interacts very closely with several different types of bacteria in the human body, which help it colonize and stimulate the production of hyphae.

Jenkinson said that one of their new ventures is to better understand the role of C. albicans in periodontal gum and jaw disease. There is evidence that C. albicans may be involved together with bacteria in eroding bone, causing teeth to fall out. While the focus of this work is oral disease, the research will also consider Candida infections in other parts of the body.

C. albicans is the species of the yeast that causes the most infections. According to Jenkinson, these microorganisms cause thrush, denture sore mouth, and often fatal infections in hospital. Over 50 percent of the population have suffered from yeast infections at one time or another.

C. albicans is thus a major concern in public health, according to him. "They are quite resilient to antimicrobial agents. Once Candida are growing in the body, they are difficult to clear. Therefore, one of our research goals is to find new ways of blocking the ability of Candida to colonize humans," he said.

Howard Jenkinson has been a professor and Oral Microbiology chair at the University of Bristol since 1997. For 25 years, he has been researching the adhesion, colonization and virulence properties of human oral microorganisms and Candida in particular.

According to Robert Dwayne Lunsford, director of the NIH Microbiology Program, Jenkinson is regarded as a world authority on streptococcal adhesions, virulence, and molecular biology and was extremely productive during his initial five-year project.

"Looking to the future, the C. albicans dynamic is worth pursuing because it has the potential for discovery of new therapeutic modalities to prevent oral colonization and ultimately systemic disease since the oral cavity can often serve as a reservoir of this fungal pathogen," he said.

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