Lactobacillus plantarum lipoteichoic acid inhibits biofilm formation of Streptococcus mutans

PLoS One. 2018 Feb 8;13(2):e0192694. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192694. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Dental caries is a biofilm-dependent oral disease and Streptococcus mutans is the known primary etiologic agent of dental caries that initiates biofilm formation on tooth surfaces. Although some Lactobacillus strains inhibit biofilm formation of oral pathogenic bacteria, the molecular mechanisms by which lactobacilli inhibit bacterial biofilm formation are not clearly understood. In this study, we demonstrated that Lactobacillus plantarum lipoteichoic acid (Lp.LTA) inhibited the biofilm formation of S. mutans on polystyrene plates, hydroxyapatite discs, and dentin slices without affecting the bacterial growth. Lp.LTA interferes with sucrose decomposition of S. mutans required for the production of exopolysaccharide, which is a main component of biofilm. Lp.LTA also attenuated the biding of fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated dextran to S. mutans, which is known to have a high affinity to exopolysaccharide on S. mutans. Dealanylated Lp.LTA did not inhibit biofilm formation of S. mutans implying that D-alanine moieties in the Lp.LTA structure were crucial for inhibition. Collectively, these results suggest that Lp.LTA attenuates S. mutans biofilm formation and could be used to develop effective anticaries agents.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biofilms / growth & development*
  • Humans
  • Lactobacillus plantarum / metabolism*
  • Lipopolysaccharides / physiology*
  • Streptococcus mutans / growth & development*
  • Teichoic Acids

Substances

  • Lipopolysaccharides
  • Teichoic Acids
  • lipoteichoic acid

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea (http://www.nrf.re.kr), which is funded by the Korean government (NRF-2015R1D1A1A09056592 to OJP and NRF-2015M2A2A6A01044894 to SHH), and by the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) (http://www.khidi.or.kr), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare (HI17C1377 to OJK), Republic of Korea.