Researchers Suggest Alzheimer’s May Be Prevented with Toothpaste

A research team from the University of Montreal, Canada, has discovered that a protein called SCPPPQ1, present in human gums, may help combat a bacterium causing neurodegenerative diseases, particularly if added to toothpaste.

The study, led by Antonio Nanci, a researcher and professor in the Department of Stomatology of the University of Montreal, which also involved scientists from Laval University, Quebec, and McGill University, Montreal, was published in the British journal Nature in early December.

Normally making the gums adhere to teeth, SCPPPQ1 may also prove effective in combating P. gingivalis, a bacterium traditionally associated with periodontal disease which could cause Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

The protein, according to Nanci, could be used as a treatment approach to check the effects of bacteria in the human brain or wherever in the body they spread.

Expressed by junctional epithelium and present in the part of the gums that surrounds the teeth, this protein may slow P. gingivalis’ – one of the major risk factors for the development of Alzheimer’s disease – replication and even destroy it, offering the scientists possibility to attack the cause of problems at its source and help prevent more than one disease.

The team believes that since SCPPPQ1 can be used to prevent the bacterium from getting into the human body through the gums in the first place and potentially combating it if it does get in, the discovery opens up a new way of treating and potentially preventing Alzheimer’s disease’s development.

Charline Mary, a postdoctoral researcher who co-led the study, emphasized that SCPPPQ1 might also offer an additional strategy for addressing the problem of bacterial resistance (AMR).

The team, which now plans to do an in-depth study of the protein’s antimicrobial potential, suggests SCPPPQ1 could be added to toothpaste to potentially destroy the bacteria, including those that have already penetrated the epithelium seal between the gum and the tooth.