Osteoporosis is a health concern characterized by reduced bone mineral density (BMD) and increased risk of fragility fractures. Many studies have investigated the association between genetic variants and osteoporosis. Polymorphism and allelic variations in the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) have been found to be associated with bone mineral density. However, many studies have not been able to find this association. Literature review was conducted in several databases, including MEDLINE/Pubmed, Scopus, EMBASE, Ebsco, Science Citation Index Expanded, Ovid, Google Scholar, Iran Medex, Magiran and Scientific Information Database (SID) for papers published between 2000 and 2013 describing the association between Fok1 and Bsm1 polymorphisms of the VDR gene and osteoporosis risk. The majority of the revealed papers were conducted on postmenopausal women. Also, more than 50% studies reported significant relation between Fok1, Bsm1 and osteoporosis. Larger and more rigorous analytical studies with consideration of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions are needed to further dissect the mechanisms by which VDR polymorphisms influence osteoporosis.
Pathogenic oral biofilms are now recognized as a key virulence factor in many microorganisms that cause the heavy burden of oral infectious diseases. Recently, new investigations in the nanotechnology field have propelled the development of novel biomaterials and approaches to control bacterial biofilms, either independently or in combination with other substances such as drugs, bioactive molecules, and photosensitizers used in antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) to target different cells. Moreover, nanoparticles (NPs) showed some interesting capacity to reverse microbial dysbiosis, which is a major problem in oral biofilm formation. This review provides a perspective on oral bacterial biofilms targeted with NP-mediated treatment approaches. The first section aims to investigate the effect of NPs targeting oral bacterial biofilms. The second part of this review focuses on the application of NPs in aPDT and drug delivery systems.
Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans is an etiological agent frequently found in both chronic and aggressive periodontitis as well as peri-implantitis. This study assessed the effect of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT), as an alternative treatment modality, by nano-chitosan encapsulated indocyanine green (CNPs/ICG), as a photosensitizer, on the virulence features of cell-surviving aPDT against A. actinomycetemcomitans. The cell cytotoxicity effect of CNPs/ICG was evaluated on primary human gingival fibroblast cells. A. actinomycetemcomitans ATCC 33384 photosensitized with CNPs/ICG was irradiated with diode laser at a wavelength of 810 nm for 1 min (31.2 J/cm 2 ), and then bacterial viability measurements were done. The biofilm formation ability, metabolic activity, and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles were assessed for cell-surviving aPDT. The effect of aPDT on the expression of the fieF virulent gene, encoding the ferrous-iron efflux pump, was evaluated by the quantitative real-time PCR. CNPs/ICG-aPDT resulted in a significant reduction of cell viability (91%), biofilm formation capacity (53%), and metabolic activity (48%) of A. actinomycetemcomitans when compared to the control group (P < 0.05). Moreover, fieF gene expression was downregulated by 14.8 folds after the strains were treated with aPDT. The virulence of A. actinomycetemcomitans strain reduced in cells surviving aPDT with CNPs/ICG, indicating the potential implications of aPDT for the treatment of A. actinomycetemcomitans infections in periodontitis and peri-implantitis in vivo.
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