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An iron oxide nanozyme formulation for augmenting the efficacy of oral care products.

A combinatory formulation for oral care products that enhances antimicrobial specificity, anti-plaque potency and prevents tooth decay.

Problem:

Tooth decay (dental caries), caused by the destruction of the outer layer (enamel) of teeth by bacteria in biofilms, affects nearly half of the global population and remains the most prevalent chronic disease in children and adults. Left untreated, it can cause toothache, infection with systemic complications, and tooth loss. There are no effective prevention measures for high-risk individuals where bacterial biofilms on the surface (known as dental plaque) rapidly accumulate. The leading prevention formulations include stannous fluoride (SnF2), which is unstable, reducing its antibacterial and caries-preventive activities.

Solution:

Combining SnF2 with Ferumoxytol (Fer) more efficiently kills cavity-causing bacteria and disrupts biofilm formation than SnF2 alone while creating a caries-protective, remineralizing layer, thereby improving the control of dental plaque and tooth decay.

Technology:

Prior work by the inventors has shown that Ferumoxytol (Fer), an FDA-approved aqueous iron oxide formulation for iron deficiency treatment, disrupts caries-causing biofilms via intrinsic peroxidase-like (catalytic) activity. To improve the solubility and stability of SnF2, which has historically been a challenge and requires chemical additives, the inventors simply combined SnF2 with Fer. This combination unexpectedly results in a stable aqueous solution with synergistic prevention of plaque accumulation and enamel demineralization, i.e., better than SnF2 or Fer alone.

Advantages:

~2500-fold increased killing of caries-causing bacteria like Streptococcus mutans than SnF2 alone
Completely blocks tooth cavities in in vivo rodent model mimicking the characteristics of severe human caries, thus preventing the onset of decay altogether
Requires four times lower fluoride concentration for therapeutic effects, opening the possibility of oral care products that use lower doses, reducing fluoride side-effects
Increases the catalytic activity of Fer (most at acidic pH, which is characteristic of pathological conditions associated with dental caries), thereby enhancing antimicrobial potency and specificity against pathogenic bacteria
Low-cost, readily available, and versatile FDA-approved materials for immediate product development and commercialization

Figure is extracted from Figure 8 of the prepared manuscript by Huang et al, titled “Ferumoxytol nanoparticles stabilize stannous fluoride for synergistic biofilm disruption and tooth-decay prevention”. It is an illustration of the interaction between SnF2 (stannous fluoride) and Fer (ferumoxytol nanozyme), and the therapeutic activity of the combined treatment of Fer and SnF2 i.e., killing of bacteria and degradation of exopolysaccharides (EPS) that provide the bulk of biofilm dry weight.