Dental caries remains a public health problem in developing countries requiring effective strategies to combat this disease. Caries vaccines showed promising results in experimental studies; however, it remains far the effective use in humans due to political-economic and ethical issues. The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature on the main research projects aimed at developing ca...

Cell surface protein antigen (PAc) and glucosyltransferases (GTF) of Streptococcus mutans are major colonization factors of the organism. We prepared bovine milk containing antibodies against a fusion of the saliva-binding alanine-rich region of PAc with the glucan-binding domain of GTF-I. This study examined the effect of the immune milk on the cariogenicity of S. mutans in a rat model. Concen...

Dental caries and dental plaque are among the most common diseases worldwide, and are caused by a mixture of microorganisms and food debris. Specific types of acid-producing bacteria, especially Streptococcus mutans, colonize the dental surface and cause damage to the hard tooth structure in the presence of fermentable carbohydrates e.g., sucrose and fructose. This paper reviews the link betwee...

It is well known that among vitamin B agents those of B1 and B6 possess an inhibitory action of experimentally induced caries in animals but nothing definiteseems still unknown about the actions of B2 and anti-vitamin B6 agents. The present report is concerned with flavin adenine dinucleotide (to be abbreviated as F. A. D.) as B2, pyridoxine, 2-methy1-3-hydroxy-4-formy1-5-hydroxymethylpyridine-...