The association between immune response genes and dental caries susceptibility

Abstract

Introduction: Dental caries is the most common chronic disease in the world. Being a multifactorial disease, many aspects affect the development of dental caries, including the role of the immune system in maintaining a healthy oral cavity. Genetics plays an important role in the aetiology of dental caries. Increased knowledge of genetics and caries can provide new tools to help dentists identify high-risk patients. The most common genetic variation is single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). This narrative literature review aims to report the association between dental caries and the genomic variant in a single base position in the DNA of immune response genes.

Method: A search in PubMed was performed to identify articles that focus on immunological genes in relation to dental caries. The words used in the search were "dental caries", "dental decay", and "genes". The final number of articles included was 25, which included the following genes: LTF, DEFB1, MBL-2, TLR, HLA, and TNF-α.

Results: No significant association was found between gene polymorphism in LTF and TLR, and dental caries. For the remaining genes, the results were conflicting; some articles found an association, others did not.

Conclusion: In conclusion, DEFB1, MBL, TNF-α, and HLA genes showed conflicting results, including associations with a higher risk of caries, a lower risk of caries, and no association with caries. For LTF and TLR genes, most studies found no significant association between gene polymorphism and dental caries. More research is needed to validate these findings.