Penn's School of Dental Medicine is located at 40th and Locust streets.
Credit: Chenyao LiuPenn's School of Dental Medicine, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Perelman School of Medicine have worked together to create a new treatment option for apical periodontitis, a chronic dental infection that causes tooth loss and affects more than half of the world's population.
The Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry at Penn recently published a study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation showing that ferumoxytol, a specific nanoparticle formulation, reduces apical periodontitis. Ferumoxytol is also an FDA-approved drug.
Apical periodontitis is an infection caused by biofilms — dense, sticky communities of bacteria — attaching deep in the root canal. Root canals are the current course of treatment, however, they pose limitations to success rates due to complications.
Sodium hypochlorite is the disinfection solution used during root canals that can cause complications if not contained within the treatment area, according to Bekir Karabucak, chair and professor of endodontics at the Dental School.
“Effective root canal disinfection is essential for treatment success," Karabucak said. "However, targeting microbes while preserving tooth structure is challenging. Current procedures require mechanical methods and harsh disinfectants to eliminate biofilm infection, but if not applied carefully, these solutions can harm surrounding tissues."
During the experimental stage, the Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry treated 44 patients with a ferumoxytol/H2O2 mixture following procedures that achieved a 99.9% reduction of bacteria without adverse effects.
Chider Chen, assistant professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the Dental School, spoke on how the project's initial research led them to a much bigger finding for the future of dental health.
“What started as a simple inquiry into potential toxicity evolved into something revolutionary: a treatment capable of eliminating stubborn biofilms while simultaneously regenerating tissue for healing, which is a novel concept for tissue regeneration through activation of one’s own tissue’s stem cells,” Chen said.
Hyun Koo, a Dental School professor, spoke of his excitement for the future treatment possibilities ferumoxytol could provide.
“Iron oxide nanozymes may be a transformative new class of therapeutics that provides both antibiofilm and tissue regenerative properties, offering a regenerative approach to antimicrobial therapy,” Koo said. “The options are limitless: it is biocompatible, inexpensive to manufacture, and can be incorporated in a variety of formulations. We are expanding nanozyme use in other aspects of oral health care.”
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