Mostly Microbes and Infection

Purpose This narrative review explores the multifaceted links between periodontal diseases (gingivitis and periodontitis) and systemic health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, adverse pregnancy outcomes, Alzheimer’s disease, cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, and respiratory infections. It aims to synthesize evidence on how local oral infections exert systemic effects and evaluate the potential of diagnostic technologies to monitor these interactions. Methods This narrative review synthesizes current scientific literature on periodontal disease pathogenesis, focusing on key pathogens (e.g.,  Porphyromonas gingivalis ,  Fusobacterium nucleatum ) and their roles in driving local and systemic inflammation via virulence factors and microbial dysbiosis. It examines biomarker-based diagnostic approaches (e.g., IL-1β, TNF-α, microbial DNA) in saliva, blood, and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and evaluates current and emerging diagnostic tools (e.g., ELISA, PCR, lat...

Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii contribute to the development of Valley Fever. The ability of these fungal pathogens to evade the host immune system creates difficulty in recognition and treatment of this debilitating infection. In this review, we describe the current knowledge of Valley Fever and approaches to improve prevention, detection, and treatment.  

Microbial organisms express pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) that can stimulate expression of proinflammatory mediators following ligation of pathogen recognition receptors. However, both commensal organisms and pathogens can express PAMPs. The immune system can distinguish between commensals and pathogens in part through secretion of the key inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. A PAMP such as lipopolysaccharide can induce production of intracellular pro-IL-1β and pro-IL-18, but not their secretion. A second “danger signal”, derived from host-cell molecules that are released from stressed or infected cells, or detected as a PAMP that is present in the cytosol, can stimulate assembly of an inflammasome that activates the protease caspase-1. Caspase-1, in turn, is responsible for processing and secretion of the mature IL-1β and IL-18. Many diverse ligands leading to inflammasome activation have been identified, but the cell signaling pathways initiated by t...

Caenorhabditis elegans is a nematode that survives naturally in a variety of environments throughout the world. This nematode has been used for decades as a model system for development, cancer and aging, since it shares with humans key genes and signaling pathways that are involved in disease. In addition, this nematode is easy to maintain in the laboratory and is genetically tractable. Major discoveries relevant for human cancer, innate immunity and longevity have been made with C. elegans, but this nematode has not been used yet for studying genes or microbiota relevant for oral health. Several laboratories in the world are starting to study the effect of the gut microbiota on the health of C. elegans. We propose to study the effect of the oral microbiota on C. elegans, by feeding the nematodes bacteria isolated from human saliva. From a dentistry perspective, being able to characterize the human oral microbiota with data analyzed from C. elegans can provide a convenient approach to...

The emergence of SARS-CoV in 2002 and SARS-CoV-2 in 2019 led to increased sampling of sarbecoviruses circulating in horseshoe bats. Employing phylogenetic inference while accounting for recombination of bat sarbecoviruses, we find that the closest-inferred bat virus ancestors of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 existed less than a decade prior to their emergence in humans. Phylogeographic analyses show bat sarbecoviruses traveled at rates approximating their horseshoe bat hosts and circulated in Asia for millennia. We find that the direct ancestors of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 are unlikely to have reached their respective sites of emergence via dispersal in the bat reservoir alone, supporting interactions with intermediate hosts through wildlife trade playing a role in zoonotic spillover. These results can guide future sampling efforts and demonstrate that viral genomic regions extremely closely related to SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 were circulating in horseshoe bats, confirming their importance as ...

Depuis 2 ans le programme ANR-SAPS EQUIPACT (Equiper les acteurs pour plus d’impacts dans les transitions) réunit un consortium de 12 structures aux thématiques et aux degrés d’implication divers dans les questions de médiation et d’intermédiation dans la recherche participative (RP) à visée transformative. Comment émergent et perdurent de tels projets sur nos territoires ? Quelles sont les compétences et les outils à mobiliser pour les acteurs impliqués ? Quels enseignements tirer des pratiques, des dispositifs et des méthodes existantes ? Voici quelques-unes des questions que le collectif s’est posées. Les enseignements et modalités d’expérience du projet seront restitués et mis en débat lors de cette journée de travail afin que les contributions des personnes participantes soient intégrées aux conclusions de la recherche.  

Garlic is rich in organosulfur compounds with high antioxidant capacity and is known to have various health benefits. Aged garlic is a particularly effective source of these active compounds because it contains fewer toxic components. This study evaluated the effects of S-allyl cysteine (SAC), a major functional organosulfur compound in garlic, and aged garlic extract (AGE) on the suppression of progressive hearing loss. SAC and AGE were dissolved in drinking water at 1% (w/w) and administered to DBA/2J mice, a model of early progressive hearing loss, for 12 weeks, starting at 4 weeks of age. While the results revealed a trend toward weight loss in the SAC group, the weight of the AGE group was comparable to that of the control group, and no adverse events were observed in either group. The hearing ability of the mice was measured using auditory brainstem responses at 4, 8, 12, and 16 weeks of age. Hearing loss at 8 and 16 kHz progressed over the 12-week period, with neither sample inh...