Engineering magnetically induced antibacterial organic/inorganic hybrid nanoparticles for the treatment of periodontitis
Chuan Fei Guo, Yuan Tu, Qiang Zhang, Yuanzhang Jiang, Yi Ding, Shimeng Xiao, Lin Tan
Abstract
The global age-standardized prevalence rate of severe periodontitis has already reached 13.1%, which makes it the second most common cause of tooth loss after caries, significantly reducing the quality of life for patients. Due to the complexity in the oral environment, it is practically difficult for conventional antibacterial materials to enter the periodontal pocket directly to eliminate periodontal plaque and inactivate target bacteria, such as Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis). To solve this problem, this study proposes a type of antibacterial magnetic nanoparticles (named as AMPs) capable of anchoring polyhexamethylene biguanidine (PHMB) to treat periodontitis through magnetic induction-targeted fixation. According to the results of in vitro antibacterial experiments, AMPs could effectively remove bacterial biofilms by taking advantage of magnetic inductivity and the nanosize effect of nanoparticles, as well as the antibacterial effect of PHMB, with a clearance rate approaching 80%. More importantly, the in vivo experiments conducted on periodontitis demonstrated the disappearance of gingival redness and suppuration after AMPs treatment. As revealed by the quantitative analysis of microCT, different from the periodontitis groups, the growth of alveolar bone was recorded in the AMPs groups. In addition, HE staining confirmed histologically that the AMPs treatment group had an increase in the height of the alveolar ridge and bone mass but a reduction in the infiltration of inflammatory factors, which substantiated the therapeutic effect of AMPs on periodontitis. Therefore, the AMPs proposed in this study are expected to be widely applied as drug carriers intended for the treatment of periodontitis.