Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Isolation and Characterization of anti-Streptococcus Mutans Phage as a Possible Treatment Agent for Caries

Hadar Ben Zaken
ORCID logo ,
Reut Kraitman
,
Shunit Coppenhagen-Glazer
,
Leron Khalifa
,
Sivan Alkalay-Oren
,
Gilad Ben-Gal
,
Nurit Beyth
,
Ronen Hazan
* ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 17 March 2021 / Approved: 2 April 2021 / Online: 2 April 2021 (11:15:54 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Ben-Zaken, H.; Kraitman, R.; Coppenhagen-Glazer, S.; Khalifa, L.; Alkalay-Oren, S.; Gelman, D.; Ben-Gal, G.; Beyth, N.; Hazan, R. Isolation and Characterization of Streptococcus mutans Phage as a Possible Treatment Agent for Caries. Viruses 2021, 13, 825. Ben-Zaken, H.; Kraitman, R.; Coppenhagen-Glazer, S.; Khalifa, L.; Alkalay-Oren, S.; Gelman, D.; Ben-Gal, G.; Beyth, N.; Hazan, R. Isolation and Characterization of Streptococcus mutans Phage as a Possible Treatment Agent for Caries. Viruses 2021, 13, 825.

Abstract

Streptococcus mutans is a key bacterium in dental caries- one of the most prevalent chronic infectious diseases. Conventional treatment both fails to specifically target the pathogenic bacteria and at-tempts to eradicate commensal bacteria as well. Thus, caries remains one of most common and challenging diseases. The use of bacterial viruses as anti-bacterial agents, is gaining interest worldwide. Hardly any phages were described against S. mutans. The objective of this study was to isolate anti-S. mutans phages and to characterize their antimi-crobial properties. Human saliva samples were filtered and screened for potential phages. Standard double-layered agar method was used for isolation. Whole genome sequence analysis and morphology visualization by TEM, were used for anti-S. mutans phage identification. Antibacterial properties were evaluated using clinical strains and ATCC strains of S. mutans in various states. Antibacterial effect was also tested on human cariogenic dentin. One phage against S. mutans was isolated and termed SMHBZ8. This phage showed effective lytic activity in vitro against both planktonic and biofilm S. mutans cultures. Moreover, the phage showed antibacterial effect when used on cariogenic dentin. The isolation and characterization of SMHBZ8 may be the first step in developing a potential phage therapy for dental caries.

Keywords

S. mutans; Phage therapy; Dental caries; S. mutans phage; Bacteriophage; Biofilm.

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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