Porphyromonas Gingivalis Antigenic Determinants - Potential Targets for the Vaccine Development against Periodontitis

Periodontal disease, is the most prevalent inflammatory affliction characterized by the loss of supporting structures of the teeth. Although bacteria are identified as prime agents initiating the disease, but major part of tissue destruction is driven by the host immune response to infecting agent and is responsible for the clinical presentation of the disease. Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) has been identified as main microbial factor for causation and progression of periodontal disease. Three emerging concepts of periodontal disease viz wide prevalence, polymicrobial nature and their role in perpetuation of systemic diseases bear critical significance on the development of novel therapeutic approaches to eradicate or alleviate the disease burden. Therefore, development of preventive approaches such as periodontal vaccine appears as an exciting modality which can prove as a significant adjunct to current periodontal therapies. The new generation diagnostics including microbial genome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis are available now to detect and analyze the whole genomic and proteomic data regarding almost all human pathogens for exploring these as novel drug targets for vaccine development. The current review, aims to provide an update of wide-ranging virulence factors of P. gingivalis as potential antigenic targets for periodontal vaccine developement. Keywords: Antigen, fimbriae, gingipains, P. gingivalis, periodontal disease, vaccine.