Chewing gum enzymes could block a cancer-causing mouth chemical
Wakade G, Liu SC, Diep NE, Daniell H
Medicinal Plants
The enzymes doing the heavy lifting here, beta-glucanase, chitinase, and mannanase, are the same tools gardeners already use or encounter when compost breaks down fungal cell walls and chitin-rich material in soil, showing how these plant and microbial enzymes work at the molecular level.
Certain germs that live in everyone's mouth, including a common yeast, can turn ordinary sugar and alcohol into a chemical that damages cells and raises cancer risk. Researchers found that specific enzymes, some naturally made by plants, can chew through the tough outer wall of these microbes and stop them from making the harmful chemical. They packed these enzymes into a chewing gum as an early step toward preventing a type of mouth and throat cancer.
Key Findings
Candida albicans produced acetaldehyde most heavily at 100 mM glucose or ethanol, while Streptococci needed 500-1,000 mM alcohol and Fusobacterium nucleatum/Porphyromonas gingivalis peaked at 170 mM ethanol
The antimicrobial peptide protegrin-1 reduced microbial viability and acetaldehyde output, but only worked once dextranase and mutanase broke down the protective biofilm coating
Plant- and microbe-derived beta-glucanase, chitinase, and mannanase degraded the yeast's cell wall and blocked release of the carcinogenic aldehyde
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found that mouth microbes, including a yeast common in the human mouth, turn sugar and alcohol into a cancer-causing chemical linked to head and neck cancer, and they built a chewing gum with enzymes and antimicrobial peptides that breaks down these microbes' protective shields and cuts that chemical production.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Prevention of HNSCC by chewing gum delivery of enzymes/antimicrobials to reduce carcinogenic acetaldehyde produced by pathogenic microbes.
Acetaldehyde, a WHO Group 1 human carcinogen, produced by oral microbes, plays a critical role at the onset of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Candida albicans isolated from differen...
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