Descrizione del progetto
Il ruolo dei parabiotici nella salute dentale
I parabiotici conferiscono una serie di proprietà che favoriscono la salute. Pur avendo dimostrato benefici (se assunti in dosi appropriate) in vari settori della medicina, devono ancora essere testati nel campo della salute orale. Il progetto INPAROL, finanziato dall’UE, produrrà parabiotici innovativi attraverso la tecnologia a ultrasuoni da ceppi misti di probiotici utilizzati nei prodotti commerciali. Il progetto valuterà gli effetti di questi probiotici mediante test antimicrobici contro i patogeni orali e in varie condizioni ambientali, sottoponendo inoltre quelli con le prestazioni migliori a campioni di biofilm che replicano le condizioni orali e a prove di tossicità. INPAROL monitorerà i cambiamenti molecolari dei mediatori infiammatori con complessi modelli di infezione in vitro.
Obiettivo
Oral diseases constitute an increased major public health burden. Alternative dental prevention and therapeutic approaches such as probiotics are gaining popularity, but partly due to these products being live bacteria their use has not gained significant popularity in dentistry. Parabiotics in appropriate doses have been shown to induce health benefits in other medical fields but have only as yet been tested sparingly for dental use.
INPAROL aims at producing innovative parabiotics through ultrasound technology from mixed strains of probiotics used in commercial products. INPARAOL probiotics’ effects will be assessed by antimicrobial testing against oral pathogens (single and mixed culture) and also following exposure to varied environmental conditions. Best performing parabiotics will be subjected to biofilm assays replicating oral conditions and toxicity assays, in vitro cell monolayers and in vivo zebrafish embryo models, will be performed. Finally, the molecular changes of changes to inflammatory mediators will be monitored with complex in vitro infection models.
Overall, this is the first time parabiotics for oral health application will be produced with the proposed methods which makes this research so niche. My strong clinical and microbiology research background makes INPAROL an ideal fit. I will be joined by a strong supervisory team at the University of Malta consisting of a renowned microbiologist and co-supervised by a world-leader on innovative antimicrobial approaches from the Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam. INPAROL affords an unprecedented opportunity to build on my expertise to kick-start an independent research path in oral health research.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
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Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
2080 MSIDA
Malta