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Tooth decay to be a thing of the past? Enzyme responsible deciphered
- Groxx 16y ago>Just add that substance to toothpaste, or even sweets, and caries will be a thing of the past. Until we inevitably discover that it causes cancer, or lupus, or rabies or something. Can you imagine the advertising push if / when this does get added to candy bars?
- electromagnetic 16y agoI'd worry about the consequences of an enzyme inhibitor being digested. I mean they're saying that it's so close to alpha-amylase that's present in our mouth and pancreas. However, they don't mention its effects on beta-amylase that is known to be present in bacteria in animals digestive tracts, but we don't know how necessary beta-amylase is to our digestion. I doubt we'll even see the inhibitor in anything for at least a decade after it's found due to its profound implications. I'm not worried about it one day causing cancer, I'm worried about it causing people to die of starvation or something bizarre after using the inhibitor.
- forgottenpaswrd 16y agoThat is what I thought too.But it could be a good thing adding it to the toothpaste, provided that you don't swallow it.
- tocomment 16y agoWhat are caries?
- Groxx 16y agoI had to look it up too. I've never seen/heard that word before, and don't expect to again. car●ies |ˈkerēz| noun decay and crumbling of a tooth or bone. ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from Latin. From New Oxford American Dictionary.
- carbocation 16y agoBasically, medicalese for cavities.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- sliverstorm 16y agoI wonder... This would basically put most dentists out of business. We'd still need some dentists and oral surgeons and orthodontists, but not nearly as many.
- nopassrecover 16y agoIn Australia we have free health care but not dental. Dental is often an exceptional case in most healthcare plans as well. It would be nice to not have to worry about that any longer. I'd be interested to know what proportion of dentistry is due to decay, particularly with the advent of chlorinated water. You'd possibly still need checkups for gum diseases.
- ThomPete 16y agoDenmark same thing and dental care here is expensive. It can easily put any medium income family back a 8K just to get a bridge done.
- morganpyne 16y agoDid you mean flouridated instead of chlorinated water? I've never heard of chlorine affecting tooth decay; it's normally added to water supplies to control germs. Flouride on the other hand is routinely added expressly for this purpose, although whether it is either effective or wise to do so is the subject of many bitter and divisive debates in communities.
- nopassrecover 16y ago
- yread 16y agoThe crystal structure has revealed that the folding mechanism of the protein is unique. The various domains of the enzyme are not formed from a single, linear amino acid chain but from two parts that assemble via a U-shaped structure of the chain; this is the first report on such a folding mechanism in the literature. Is it that unique? I thought α and β chains of hemoglobin for example are also separate subunits.
- jbermudes 16y agoThey're also working on a "vaccine" for cavities: replacing the native bacteria in your mouth that consume the leftover sugars and excrete acid that eats away at the enamel with genetically modified versions that are harmless. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caries_vaccine#Attempts_using_Replacement_Therapy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caries_vaccine#Attempts_using_R...
- goombastic 16y agoIf an industry has an association, don't expect lower prices or breakthroughs that reduce work to happen.
- pierrefar 16y agoWell, there is more to plaque and thus caries than just one enzyme no matter how much it gets hyped up. I've done quite a bit of research on this and the short answer is that it is a complex interaction between many different bacteria (a large percentage of which we cannot grow in the lab) and the human host. Yes different genetics seem to be make people more or less resistant to caries and different habits play a key role. Also we know of some bacterial genes that when knocked out result in less or no plaque in the lab, but again, it's only one type of bacterium. In the mouth, if you somehow managed to (legally, ethically, and technically) introduce such mutant bacteria, it is likely that another one will produce the plaque and you're off again. It is just not easy to fix. So trying to spin that this one enzyme from only one type of bacteria found in plaque is responsible for caries and that it is the nail that holds this complex in place is a bit premature and silly.
- chopsueyar 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caries_vaccine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caries_vaccine
- gxti 16y agoThe answer to a question in a headline is always the null hypothesis. In this case, "no".
- joeycfan 16y agoWe get this every 7 years or so - 'a vaccination for tooth decay is on its way!' then nothing comes of it.
- giardini 16y agoWe've been promised cures for tooth decay for fully 40 years. None has come to fruition in the USA - dentists are too firmly entrenched to let that happen. It would wipe them out, something pretty useful in general, since dental costs are predicted to skyrocket in the next 10 years. Two generations of tooth decay _vaccines_ haven't made it to the USA although in some cases they were available in Great Britain and Europe.
- recampbell 16y agoSource?
- giardini 16y agoHere you go, buttbreath: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=tooth+decay+vaccine+in+britain http://lmgtfy.com/?q=tooth+decay+vaccine+in+britain http://lmgtfy.com/?q=history+%20caries+vaccine http://lmgtfy.com/?q=history+%20caries+vaccine
- davidj 16y agoYeah, I came here to say exactly what you did, thanks. I remember an article like this every 2-3 years popping up. Oh yeah, and of course the HN hive mind voted you down.