The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences released 31 "China’s important medical advances in 2021" at the recent China Medical Development Conference. The joint research on caries microorganisms, which was completed by Prof. Xuedong Zhou’s team of the West China School of Stomatology and Prof. Lixin Zhang’s team of the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reveals the important role of Candida albicans in the occurrence and development of root caries. It is the only achievement in stomatology that has made it to the list of "China’s important medical advances in 2021", another important achievement after Prof. Weidong Tian's team gained a spot on the list of “China’s important medical advances in 2020".
“Dental caries, also known as tooth decay, is one of the most common oral diseases that cause increasing socioeconomic burden to the humans. According to the reports from Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016, dental caries ranked number one in prevalence and number two in incidence of the ten causes with highest prevalence/incidence. Root caries is a subtype of dental caries that mainly affects elder populations. The prevalence of root caries in the elderly reaches 25–100%.”(Introduction)
“The current study aimed to explore the action of this fungal species on the microbial ecology and the pathogenesis of root caries. Here, by analyzing C. albicans in supragingival dental plaque collected from root carious lesions and sound root surfaces of root-caries subjects as well as caries-free individuals, we observed significantly increased colonization of C. albicans in root carious lesions.--- Our data indicate the critical role of C. albicans infection in the occurrence of root caries. PHR2 is the major factor that determines the ecological impact and caries-promoting activity of C. albicans in a mixed microbial consortium.” (Abstract)
Their research findings are published in The ISME Journal,aninternational top journal in Microecology.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41396-020-00823-8
