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Fighting gum disease

Young women holding her face as if with a painful toothache.

Periodontitis, commonly known as gum disease, is a chronic inflammatory condition that results in the gradual deterioration of the tissue that supports the teeth. Periodontitis is chiefly caused by microbial infections. Ongoing treatment of these microbes with antibiotics often results in antibiotic resistance and decreased effectiveness. Therefore, there is urgent demand for alternative antimicrobials to replace current antibiotic use.

Recently published in silico and in vitro research showed that fucoidan has promising therapeutic potential. The study utilised silver nanoparticles, widely recognised for their antimicrobial properties, high purity fucoidan and hyaluronic acid to form a unique hydrogel matrix. It found that the matrix exhibited significant antimicrobial and antibiofilm properties. 

Further in vivo research showed that the hydrogel offered superior antimicrobial efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus, the pathogen causing periodontitis, in addition to superior mucoadhesion and anti-inflammatory properties. Researchers concluded that ‘fucoidan coated silver nanoparticles synthesised from Undaria pinnatifida fucoidan have tremendous potential in drug development.’

The high purity Undaria pinnatifida fucoidan utilised in the study was produced by Marinova. The full paper, ’An in-silico, in-vitro, and in-vivo analysis of hyaluronic acid embedded fucoidan capped silver nanoparticles against periodontal pathogen’, was published in the Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology.

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