Project description:Purpose: Dental caries is characterized by a dysbiotic shift at the biofilm-tooth surface interface, yet comprehensive biochemical characterizations of the biofilm are scant. We used metabolomics to identify biochemical features of the supragingival biofilm associated with early childhood caries (ECC) prevalence and severity. Methods: The study’s analytical sample comprised 289 children ages 3-5 (51% with ECC) who attended public preschools in North Carolina and were enrolled in a community-based cross-sectional study of early childhood oral health. Clinical examinations were conducted by calibrated examiners in community locations using ICDAS criteria. Supragingival plaque collected from the facial/buccal surfaces of all primary teeth in the upper-left quadrant were analyzed using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography-tandem Mass Spectrometry. Associations between individual metabolites and 18 clinical traits (based on different ECC definitions and sets of tooth surfaces) were quantified using Brownian distance correlations (dCor) and linear regression modeling of log2-transformed values, applying a False Discovery Rate multiple testing correction. A tree-based pipeline optimization tool (TPOT)-machine learning process was used to identify the best-fitting ECC classification metabolite model. Results: There were 503 named metabolites identified, including microbial, host and exogenous biochemicals. Most significant ECC-metabolite associations were positive (i.e., upregulations/enrichments). The localized ECC case definition (ICDAS≥1 caries experience within the surfaces from which plaque was collected) had the strongest correlation with the metabolome (dCor p=8x10-3). Sixteen metabolites were significantly associated with ECC after multiple testing correction, including: fucose (p=3.0x10-6) and N-acetylneuraminate (p=6.8x10-6) with higher ECC prevalence; catechin (p=4.7x10-6) and epicatechin (p=2.9x10-6) with lower. Catechin, epicatechin, imidazole propionate, fucose, 9,10-DiHOME, and N-acetylneuraminate were among the top 15 metabolites in terms of ECC classification importance in the automated TPOT model. Conclusion: These supragingival biofilm metabolite findings provide novel insights in ECC biology and can serve as the basis for the development of measures of disease activity or risk assessment.

Project description:Dental caries (also known as tooth decay) remains the most common chronic disease of childhood, five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than environmental allergies, with more than 40% of children exhibiting caries when they enter kindergarten. In 2005, it was estimated that dental health care costs were approximately $84 billion, of which 60% or about $50 billion were related to treatment of dental caries. Although overall caries prevalence has declined over the last 40 years, dental caries in the primary dentition and mean caries rates in children ages 2-11 has increased markedly over the past 12 years. Childhood caries is a serious public health issue because of associated health problems and because disparities in oral health have led to substantially higher average disease prevalence among children in poverty and in under-served racial and ethnic groups. These issues are of such concern that in 2005, the American Academy of Pediatrics made children's oral health one of their top areas of focus, as it is for the majority of the NIDCR "Disparities Centers". The etiology of dental caries has been studied for many years. Multiple factors contribute to a person's risk for caries, including: 1) environmental factors such as diet, oral hygiene, fluoride exposure and the level of colonization of cariogenic bacteria and 2) host factors such as salivary flow, salivary buffering capacity, position of teeth relative to each other, surface characteristics of tooth enamel and depth of occlusal fissures on posterior teeth. In spite of all that is known about this disease, there are still individuals who appear to be more susceptible to caries and those who are extremely resistant, regardless of the environmental risk factors to which they are exposed, implying that genetic factors also play an important role in caries etiology. This conclusion is supported by studies in both humans and animals, with the most compelling evidence coming from studies of twins reared apart in which investigators found significant resemblance within monozygotic (MZ) but not dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs for percentage of teeth and surfaces restored or carious and estimated the genetic contribution to caries as 40%. Other recent studies of twins reared together estimated the heritability for caries, adjusted for age and gender, as ranging from 45-64%. Despite the strong evidence of a genetic component to risk for dental caries, there have been only a few studies of candidate genes in caries, and no published genome-wide scans. A comprehensive genome wide search is the only approach that will allow us to identify those genetic regions likely to harbor genes increasing the risk for dental caries, and eventually to identify the etiologic genes and to explore the interaction of those genes with microbiological, dietary, fluoride, and behavioral factors that are known to be associated with caries risk and progression. Therefore, the goal of this study is to perform genome-wide association (GWA) studies of dental caries with a large panel of SNP's (610,000) in families and individuals ascertained through multiple US sites (University of Pittsburgh and University of Iowa). The v2 release of this study includes 96 additional individuals who were genotyped with the CCDG: Dental Caries and CL/P in Guatemala project (dbGaP accession number <a href="./study.cgi?study_id=phs000440">phs000440</a>) to augment the data initially presented here. These subjects were genotyped on the Illumina 610 platform to make their data comparable. This study is part of the Gene Environment Association Studies initiative (GENEVA, <a href="http://www.genevastudy.org" target="_blank">http://www.genevastudy.org</a>), which was developed through the trans-NIH Genes, Environment, and Health Initiative (GEI). The overarching goal is to identify novel genetic factors that contribute to dental caries through large-scale genome-wide association studies of well-characterized families and individuals at multiple sites in the U.S. Genotyping was performed at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR). The study was supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR, U01-DE018903). Data cleaning and harmonization were done at the GEI-funded GENEVA Coordinating Center at the University of Washington.

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Genome-Wide Association Study of Early Childhood Caries: CIDR

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