Maryam Pourhajibagher1, Abbas Bahador2. 1. Dental Research Center, Dentistry Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2. Dental Research Center, Dentistry Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Laser Research Center, Dentistry Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: abahador@sina.tums.ac.ir.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Porphyromonas gingivalis is a momentous bacterial etiological agent associated with periodontitis, peri-implantitis as well as endodontic infections. The potential advantage of Photo-activated disinfection (PAD) as a promising novel approach is the choice of a suitable target site, specific photosensitizer, and wavelength of light for delivery of the light from source to target. Since Arg-gingipain is a cysteine proteinase that is involved in the virulence of P. gingivalis, it was evaluated as a target site for PAD with indocyanine green (ICG) as a photosensitizer. METHODS: In this study, we used a range of in silico strategies, bioinformatics tools, biological databases, and computer simulation molecular modeling to evaluate the capacity of Arg-gingipain. RESULTS: The predicted structure of Arg-gingipain indicated that it is located outside the cell and has nine domains and 17 ligands, including two calcium ions and three sodium ions with positive charges which can be a site of interaction for anionic ICG. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, anionic ICG desires to bind and interact with residues of Arg-gingipain during PAD as a main site to enhance the yield of treatment of endo-periodontal lesions.
BACKGROUND:Porphyromonas gingivalis is a momentous bacterial etiological agent associated with periodontitis, peri-implantitis as well as endodontic infections. The potential advantage of Photo-activated disinfection (PAD) as a promising novel approach is the choice of a suitable target site, specific photosensitizer, and wavelength of light for delivery of the light from source to target. Since Arg-gingipain is a cysteine proteinase that is involved in the virulence of P. gingivalis, it was evaluated as a target site for PAD with indocyanine green (ICG) as a photosensitizer. METHODS: In this study, we used a range of in silico strategies, bioinformatics tools, biological databases, and computer simulation molecular modeling to evaluate the capacity of Arg-gingipain. RESULTS: The predicted structure of Arg-gingipain indicated that it is located outside the cell and has nine domains and 17 ligands, including two calcium ions and three sodium ions with positive charges which can be a site of interaction for anionic ICG. CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, anionic ICG desires to bind and interact with residues of Arg-gingipain during PAD as a main site to enhance the yield of treatment of endo-periodontal lesions.