Antimicrobial Strategies against Oral Pathogenic Bacteria and Biofilm, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is a continuation of our previous Special Issue on the same topic entitled Oral Pathogenic Bacteria Infection Control

In the oral cavity, microbial homeostasis and its maintenance represent a great global challenge. Microorganisms in this niche are organized in groups of multiple species, that is, in biofilms. Nowadays, the characterization of the species diversity of these communities is advancing rapidly through next-generation sequencing; however, we must not forget their functionality, knowledge that advances more slowly with regard to their metabolic properties and the flows of substrates and products, which increasingly reveal microbial taxa of unknown but key functions in the development of oral disease. The alteration of the balance in the oral cavity, and, therefore, the dysbiosis of the microbial community present in its different locations, constitute an important factor in determining the virulence of the microbial consortium and the consequent development of oral infectious diseases, including dental caries, gingivitis, periodontitis, endodontic periapical lesions, and peri-implantitis.

The effective management of oral infectious diseases related to biofilms is a challenge with multiple approaches that must continue to develop, ranging from the precise and continuous elimination of specific oral pathogens to the use of antimicrobial agent release, contact-killing, and multi-functional strategies for the prevention of initial bacterial attachment or biofilm dispersal. Much remains to be investigated about the reasons for the emergence of specific organisms, changes in relative abundances, their interdependence between species, their fitness or their adaptations related to oral diseases. Likewise, the use of probiotics and compounds that modulate the virulence of the oral biofilm without killing commensal bacteria and the application of novel approaches such as nanomaterials, quaternary ammonium salts, arginine or natural products, avoiding the elimination of commensals that can cause ecological dysbiosis, are presented as powerful preventive tools. Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy or cold atmospheric plasma application has also emerged as an alternative to antimicrobial treatments and biofilm disruption.

This Special Issue aims to gather papers describing innovative antimicrobial strategies with the potential to control infections related to oral biofilms with special interest in those capable of inhibiting biofilm virulence without necessarily inducing the microbial dysbiosis of oral biofilms. Also, papers are requested to improve our knowledge of the metabolic properties and the fluxes of substrates and products that occur in these oral microbial communities related to the development of the diseases. These methods can be used in the near future to effectively promote the clinical management of infectious oral diseases, and thus benefit oral health in the face of the increasing emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

After the successful first volume on Oral Pathogenic Bacteria Infection Control, and considering the great challenges that these infections entail, we are delighted to launch a second volume, in which we hope to bring together the new advances in this exciting topic. We kindly invite you to submit original research articles as well as review articles.

Prof. Dr. María C. Sánchez Beltrán
Guest Editor

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• oral biofilms
• oral pathogenic bacteria
• oral infections
• antimicrobial strategies
• microbial oral homeostasis
• oral dysbiosis
• antibiotic resistance

• Antimicrobial Strategies against Oral Pathogenic Bacteria and Biofilm in Antibiotics (9 articles)