5 ms·
Years ago, I recall reading about a putative Cavity Vaccine which was a bateriophage which targeted the tiny fraction of species present in the mouth responsibl
by fbdab103 4y ago
Years ago, I recall reading about a putative Cavity Vaccine which was a bateriophage which targeted the tiny fraction of species present in the mouth responsible for tooth decay. Supposedly, a one time inoculation would confer lifelong protection.
It has been decades and I have not heard anything more about this. Big Dentist keeping the research down or was there some "in mice" kind of gotcha which limited the treatment?
- nerdponx 4y agoWith the headlines like that, it's usually safe to assume the latter. I remember reading in Popular Science on and off for years (00s) about all kinds of innovations that were right around the corner ('10-15 or so), much of which still remains firmly in "maybe one day" stage. Maybe a bunch of things didn't come to pass that I don't remember, but I clearly remember a lot of articles about air travel (delta wings everywhere!) and commercial space travel (Burt Rutan!). For a sense of how low my expectations got, I remember reading about the Boeing 7E7 and being surprised when a new generation of airliners was in fact coming out. That experience has been born out many times since, in my adult life. I've all but completely stopped following "science journalism" as a result. I'll hear about it when it actually happens.
- at_a_remove 4y agoI tracked down the guy who invented this, if this is the version you're thinking of, and wrote him. It wasn't a vaccine so much as it was a replacement of your oral flora and fauna with a non-cavity causing bacteria. This was maybe twelve years ago, but he said essentially that the FDA really really really didn't like the idea, and he had to sell off bits and pieces of the concept.
- cosmojg 4y agoThis sounds amazing! Got any more info? Where can I find this guy and his patents? I wonder if I can whip something up at home...
- dennis_jeeves1 4y agoCount me in, I too am interested.
- Firmwarrior 4y agoBe sure to post a "Show HN" when you start selling unregulated oral biome replacements out of international waters, so I can partake
- dennis_jeeves1 4y agoMind emailing me (email on my profile) all details that you dug up?
- jh00ker 4y agoOMG! I came here to post a question asking if anyone remembered this, thinking surely someone in the HN crowd familiar with it would see this post and click into the comments! Where can we learn more about it? I heard about it sometime between mid-2006 and late-2009.
- fbdab103 4y agoI think the real question - did the inventor ever dose himself with the concoction?
- at_a_remove 4y agoI couldn't find my original stuff but ... Dr. Jeffrey Hillman, previously of Oragenics. Looks like he retired just after we corresponded, no surprise there. He had a version of strepococcus mutans that not only did not dump lactic acid (the mechanism behind dental caries), but also secreted MU1140, helping it out-compete the "bad" strepococcus mutans in your mouth. Well, it's still in the pipeline, maybe, at https://www.oragenics.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/35/oragenics-receives-new-patent-for-improved-replacement https://www.oragenics.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/3... ... but right now you can still get Probiora3, which is more of a probiotic for your mouth, kind of the more viable piece, since a one-time treatment replacing bacteria is a little scary to some. Hope this helps.
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- voisin 4y agohttps://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/09/the-great-forgetting-how-to-stop-tooth-decay.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/09/th...