Highlights:
- Consistently, subsequent genetic and pharmacological studies in rodents have implicated the central complement component C3 and downstream signaling pathways in periodontal host-microbe interactions that promote dysbiosis and inflammatory bone loss.
- This review discusses these mechanistic advances and moreover focuses on the compstatin family of C3 inhibitors as a novel approach to treat periodontitis.
- In this regard, local application of the current lead analog Cp40 was recently shown to block both inducible and naturally occurring periodontitis in non-human primates.
- Conclusion: These promising results from non-human primate studies and the parallel development of Cp40 for clinical use highlight the feasibility for developing an adjunctive, C3-targeted therapy for human periodontitis.
Author and source information
Authors: George Hajishengallis, Evlambia Hajishengallis, Tetsuhiro Kajikawa, Baomei Wang, Despina Yancopoulou, Daniel Ricklin, John D. Lambris.
Reference: Seminars in Immunology. 2016 Mar 26. doi:10.1016/j.smim.2016.03.006.
Source: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com