Scientists have found a way to use nanoparticles to effectively break down plaque and wipe out more than 99.9 per cent of cavity-causing bacteria within minutes, an advance that may help better prevent tooth decay. The bacteria that live in dental plaque and contribute to tooth decay often resist traditional antimicrobial treatment, as they can “hide” within a sticky biofilm matrix, a glue-like polymer scaffold.
Researchers at University of Pennsylvania took a more sophisticated approach.
Instead of applying an antimicrobial to the teeth, they took advantage of the pH-sensitive and enzyme-like properties of iron-containing nanoparticles to catalyse the activity of hydrogen peroxide, a commonly used natural antiseptic. The activated hydrogen peroxide produced free radicals that were able to degrade the biofilm matrix and kill the bacteria within, significantly reducing plaque and preventing the tooth decay, or cavities, in an animal model.
“Even using a very low concentration of hydrogen peroxide, the process was incredibly effective at disrupting the biofilm,” said Hyun Koo, from the University of Pennsylvania.
“Adding nanoparticles increased the efficiency of bacterial killing more than 5,000-fold,” said Koo.
Image credit: Ambelrip / 123RF Photo
Recent News
A Promising New Pathway in the Battle Against Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Neuronal Molecule Makes Prostate Cancer More Aggressive Researchers discover a potential therapeutic avenue against an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer and [...]
Nasal Vaccines: Stopping the COVID-19 Virus Before It Reaches the Lungs
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines have played a large role in preventing deaths and severe infections from COVID-19. But researchers are still in the process of developing alternative [...]
NASA Tracking a Huge, Growing Anomaly in Earth’s Magnetic Field – with video
NASA is actively monitoring a strange anomaly in Earth's magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies above the planet, stretching out between South America and [...]
New, Better Models Show How Infectious Diseases Like COVID-19 Spread
Infectious diseases such as COVID-19 can spread rapidly across the globe. Models that can predict how such diseases spread will strengthen national surveillance systems and improve public health decision-making. [...]
Human Antibodies Discovered That Can Block Multiple Coronaviruses Including COVID-19
Results from a Scripps Research and UNC team pave the way for a vaccine and therapeutic antibodies that could be stockpiled to fight future coronavirus pandemics. A team of [...]
Nanotechnology could be used to treat lymphedema
The human body is made up of thousands of tiny lymphatic vessels that ferry white blood cells and proteins around the body, like a superhighway of the immune system. [...]
DNA Nanotechnology Tools – From Design to Applications
Suite of DNA nanotechnology devices engineered to overcome specific bottlenecks in the development of new therapies, diagnostics, and understanding of molecular structures. DNA nanostructures with their potential for cell [...]
Regenerating bone with deer antler stem cells
Scientists from a collection of Chinese research institutions collaborated on a study of organ regeneration in mammals, finding deer antler blastema progenitor cells are a possible source of conserved [...]
AI Takes On Cancer: Analysis of Mutations Could Lead to Improved Therapy
Cancer is a complex and diverse disease, and its range of associated mutations is vast. The combination of these genomic changes in an individual is referred to as their [...]
Exposing tumours to bacteria converts immune cells to cancer killers
New research on inflammation could lead to better treatments to improve outcomes for people with advanced or previously untreatable cancers. Introducing bacteria to a tumour’s microenvironment creates a state [...]
Smart nanotechnology for more accurate delivery of insulin
More efficient and longer lasting glucose-responsive insulin that eliminates the need for people with type 1 diabetes to measure their glucose levels could be a step closer thanks to [...]
Efficiently Harvesting Rare Earth Elements From Wastewater Using Exotic Bacteria
The novel strains of cyanobacteria exhibit a fast and efficient “biosorption” of rare earth elements, making recycling possible. Rare earth elements (REEs) are a set of 17 metallic elements [...]
Resisting Treatment: Cancer Cells Shrink or Super-Size To Survive
A new approach to image analysis has uncovered how cancer cells manipulate their size as a means of resisting treatment. Researchers have discovered that cancer cells are capable of [...]
New Research Explains Why Children Avoid Severe COVID-19 Symptoms
According to new research, children exhibit a robust initial immune response to the coronavirus, however, they are unable to transfer this response to long-lasting memory T cells like adults [...]
Scientists Unravel Protein Map of Mitochondria
A new study sheds light on the organization of proteins within mitochondria. Mitochondria, the “powerhouses” of cells, play a crucial role in the energy production of organisms and are [...]
Mystifying Trapping Phenomenon: A Surprising Way To Catch a Microparticle
New insights could advance microfluidics and drug delivery systems. New study finds obstacles can trap rolling microparticles in fluid Through simulations and experiments, physicists attribute the trapping effect to [...]
New Alzheimer’s Treatment: Blocking T Cells To Prevent Neurodegeneration
Findings, in mice, open up drug development possibilities for brain diseases linked to tau protein. Nearly two dozen experimental therapies targeting the immune system are in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease, [...]
Advancing the Way for the Brain to Be Able to Control Devices in Real Time
Just a few decades ago, the possibility of connecting the brain with a computer to convert neural signals into concrete actions would have seemed like something from science fiction. [...]
Real AI Will Need Biology: Computers Powered by Human Brain Cells
In an article published today in Frontiers in Science, the team outlines how biological computers could surpass today’s electronic computers for certain applications while using a small fraction of [...]
CRISPR for the Masses – Genetic Vaccines Are In Our Very Near Future
In 2017, I sat down to read a book entitled, A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution. Written by Jennifer Doudna it described a new tool called [...]
Scientists Solve Cell Survival Mystery
The new findings have the potential to improve our understanding of cancers and a multitude of other diseases. Researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have finally discovered the role [...]
Chemotherapy Chaos: Tumor Cells’ Response to Treatment Is Driven by Randomness
Inherent ‘noise’ in the system of gene expression in tumor cell death, is another tool cancer cells use to resist chemotherapy treatment. Cancer cells have an innate randomness in [...]
Revolutionary Testing Method Diagnoses COVID-19 With Near-Perfect Accuracy
By monitoring the body’s molecular response to a viral attack, the new method developed by Flatiron Institute researchers and their colleagues can diagnose even asymptomatic patients with 98.4 percent accuracy. [...]
Chemical imaging could help predict efficacy of radiation therapy for cancer patients
Decisions on cancer treatment could become better tailored to individual patients with the adoption of a new imaging method being developed by University of Michigan researchers that maps the [...]
Study Finds Omega-3 May Be Protective Against COVID-19 Infection
Study Shows Those With a Higher Omega-3 Index Are More Protected From Severe COVID Infection Omega-3 fatty acids, especially EPA and DHA, might be protective against contracting and/or suffering adverse [...]
Superhydrophobic biosensor could measure sweat vapors on the body
Sweat contains biomarkers that help doctors make health diagnoses. Wearable sensors can be used to monitor a person's perspiration rate and provide information about the skin, nervous system activity [...]
New blood test for prostate cancer could end the ordeal of biopsies for thousands of men
A blood test for prostate cancer could spare thousands of men from unnecessary biopsies. Experts say the breakthrough offers 'great promise' for detection of the disease, which is the most common [...]
Building a Better Opioid: Scientists Take Another Step Forward
A group of scientists collaborated to release comprehensive structures of the entire human opioid receptor family, with the aim of facilitating the development of more precise pain medications. In [...]
Johns Hopkins Machine-Learning Model Predicts COVID-19 Resistance
A research team from Johns Hopkins Medicine and Johns Hopkins University has developed a machine-learning (ML) tool capable of predicting who has the highest probability of being naturally resistant to COVID-19 [...]
New Investigational Drug Could Combat Brain Tumors
In mouse studies, the drug was found to delay the growth of tumors and enhance the sensitivity of glioblastoma cells to anticancer treatments. Due to its highly aggressive and [...]
Twin-bioengine self-adaptive micro/nanorobots developed
Developed for gastrointestinal inflammation therapy... Micro/nanorobots with self-propelling and self-navigating capabilities have attracted extensive attention in from researchers in drug delivery and therapy due to their controllable locomotion in [...]
Quantum Physicists Make Nanoscopic Breakthrough of Colossal Significance
In a new breakthrough, researchers at the University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with Ruhr University Bochum, have solved a problem that has caused quantum researchers headaches for years. The [...]
Making nanoparticle building blocks for new materials
Some researchers are driven by the quest to improve a specific product, like a battery or a semiconductor. Others are motivated by tackling questions faced by a given industry. [...]
The haunting brain science of long Covid
Matt Fitzgerald used to bike up and down 3,500 feet through the Santa Ana Mountains on three-hour rides just for fun. Now, nine months after being infected with SARS-CoV-2, [...]
Achieving a better understanding of how the blood-brain barrier works
Up to now, the use of models to research the barrier that separates the circulatory from the nervous system has proven to be either limited or extremely complicated. Researchers [...]
Nanoparticles drill holes at will in silicon
A Hamburg-based research team has developed a new method for producing a network of large to very fine pores in silicon and glass. At DESY’s X-ray source PETRA III, [...]
Merging Technologies to Tackle Brain Tumors
Recently, researchers at Yale University and the University of Connecticut collaborated to develop a nanoparticle-based treatment to fight glioblastoma (GBM), one of the most harmful malignancies with a high [...]
How a graphene-nanowire ‘sandwich’ is transforming electronics
As devices get smaller and more powerful, the risk of them overheating and burning out increases substantially. Despite advancements in cooling solutions, the interface between an electronic chip and [...]
Nanowire Assay Detects Brain Tumor Biomarkers in Urine
A recent study conducted at Nagoya University has focussed on developing an all-in-one nanowire assay system that can capture and evaluate extracellular vesicles useful for early cancer diagnosis. Extracellular vesicles are [...]
When the light is neither ‘on’ nor ‘off’ in the nanoworld
Whether the light in our living spaces is on or off can be regulated in everyday life simply by reaching for the light switch. However, when the space for [...]
Noninvasive nano test can detect even trace elements of prostate cancer
Cedars-Sinai Cancer investigators have developed a new nanotechnology-based test that can detect and profile prostate cancers—even in microscopic amounts. Their work, published in the journal Nano Today, suggests that this [...]
An ultra-stable protein nanowire made by bacteria provides clues to combating climate change
Accelerated climate change is a major and acute threat to life on Earth. Rising temperatures are caused by microbes producing 50% of atmospheric methane which is 30 times more [...]
New biomarker for disease progression in multiple sclerosis
The autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis can take a variety of courses. Determining the current and future progression of the disease is important in order to slow down its course [...]
Extracts From Two Wild Plants Inhibit COVID-19 Virus
Two common wild plants contain extracts that inhibit the ability of the virus that causes COVID-19 to infect living cells, an Emory University study finds. Scientific Reports published the results—the [...]
Mushrooms Magnify Memory by Boosting Nerve Growth
Researchers from The University of Queensland have discovered the active compound from an edible mushroom that boosts nerve growth and enhances memory. Professor Frederic Meunier from the Queensland Brain Institute said the [...]
Scientists discover receptor that blocks COVID-19 infection
The receptor sticks to the virus and pulls it away from the target cells University of Sydney scientists have discovered a protein in the lung that blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection [...]
New diagnostic test is 1,000 times more sensitive than conventional tests
When Srikanth Singamaneni and Guy Genin, both professors of mechanical engineering and materials science at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, established a new [...]
Novel Nanotechnology-Based Blood Test can Detect and Profile Prostate Cancers
Cedars-Sinai Cancer investigators have developed a new nanotechnology-based test that can detect and profile prostate cancers-;even in microscopic amounts. Their work, published in the peer-reviewed journal nanotoday, suggests that this "liquid biopsy" test [...]
Treat Untreatable Infections? Princeton Researchers Have Created a New Bacteria-Killing Compound
A mechanism used by bacteria to defend themselves could lead to the development of new antibiotics. Princeton Engineering researchers have found a compound that can kill bacteria that cause incurable [...]
Tuning Into Brainwave Rhythms Dramatically Accelerates Learning in Adults
First study to show that delivering information at the natural tempo of our neural pulses accelerates our ability to learn. Participants who received a simple 1.5-second visual cue at [...]
Leave A Comment