Prevalence of the oral pathogen and its FtxA toxin related to clinical parameters and presence of .

The Gram-positive organism is implicated in multiple oral diseases including periodontitis, and approximately 50% of known strains encode and produce a recently identified repeat-in-toxin (RTX) protein, FtxA, partly homologous to the leukotoxin. By assessing a longitudinal Ghanaian study population of adolescents, we recently identified a possible correlation between levels, gene carriage, and progression of clinical attachment loss (CAL). To extend knowledge on the possible significance of and its FtxA in periodontal disease, we have in the present work analyzed saliva samples in an independent cohort of periodontitis (n=156), collected at two private periodontal specialist practices in Perth, Western Australia. The present results corroborate that high loads of and the presence of its gene together are associated with parameters of periodontal tissue destruction and severity. Moreover, among the individuals carrying , a majority also exhibited an -positive , supporting the notion of the synergistic behavior of these two species. This emphasizes that and its are involved in the pathogenesis of periodontitis and may have ecological roles, with diagnostic and prognostic implications for the disease.