Abstract

Introduction. Dental Biofilm or plaque is an assembly of microbial cells attached to a surface encased in the extracellular polymeric substance, which plays a crucial role in infection persistence. Oral infections are caused by opportunistic pathogens that exist in normal balanced microflora of the oral cavity, but become pathogenic upon any alteration in the typical biological environment of the oral cavity giving them favorable conditions. The early colonizers such as Streptococci enhance the infectivity by remodeling the oral microbiome and the metabolome. This remodeling may allow other pathogenic Streptococcus strains such as  S.mitis, S.oralis, S.sanguia S. gordonii, S.mutans to colonize, which can potentially cause problems due to their inherent resistance to antibiotics and ability to form biofilms.
Methods. In this study, we performed mass spectrometry (MS) based metabolomic analysis of biofilm formation by Streptococcus mutans strains linked to dental caries and those present in the oral microbiome of healthy persons to screen Streptococcus strains that can cause caries. Five clinical specimens from individuals who had caries disease (Caries active, CA) were compared with two isolates from the healthy oral dental microbiota (Caries free, CF).
Results and Discussion. Metabolomic studies were performed to identify the mechanism of biofilm formation and adaptations of bacterial strains to the human buccal cavity environment, which can lead to better diagnostic strategies and antibiotic development for streptococcus. The finding revealed metabolic variations in bacterial cells obtained from non-caries and caries subjects. These signatures though very general or broad can still be used to characterize the caries causing propensities of the oral cavity resident bacteria