Gene variability in taste receptors and early childhood caries

Background: Early childhood carries (ECC) is an infectious disease characterized by decayed primary teeth in children aged less than 6 years. The etiopathogenesis of ECC involves environmental factors such as diet, oral hygiene, other oral habits, socio-economic factors, and also genetic predispositions to this multifactorial disease. The specific variants of genes encoding sweet and bitter taste receptors (TAS1R2 and TAS2R38, respectively) have been previously associated with dietary preferences and with dental caries in deciduous and permanent dentitions. The aim of our study was to analyze selected TAS1R2 and TAS2R38 polymorphisms in relation to dental caries in preschool children from the Czech Republic. Subjects and Methods: This case-control study included 304 subjects aged 2-6 years: 214 children with ECC (i.e. the presence of one or more decayed, filled or missing teeth due to carries) and 93 healthy controls without dental caries. The subjects were genotyped for TAS1R2 (rs35874116) and TAS2R38 (rs713598 and rs1726866) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) by qPCR with TaqMan fluorescent assays. Results: Although there were no significant differences in the allele or genotype frequencies in both TAS2R38 SNPs between children with ECC and controls, a significant association between CC genotype TAS1R2 SNP (rs35874116) and ECC development was found (P<0.05, OR=0.48, 95%CI= 0.23-0.99). Conclusions: The CC genotype TAS1R2 SNP (rs35874116) encoded Val/Val in amino acid sequence, previously associated with lower daily sugar consumption in overweight subjects, was found as protective factor for ECC development in Czech children. Acknowledgements: The study was supported by funds provided by the Faculty of Medicine MU to junior researcher Petra Borilova Linhartova, grants AZV 17-30439A, GACR GB14-37368G, projects MUNI/A/0948/2016 and Recetox RI (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001761).