Prevalence and eradication of mixed biofilms of Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans using naringin: In vitro and in silico investigations.

OBJECTIVE

To identify a potential natural therapeutic agent to treat the mixed biofilms of Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans, thereby preventing dental caries.

DESIGN

The coexisting S. mutans and C. albicans was isolated from dental caries. Antimicrobial activity of various natural components was assessed against S. mutans and C. albicans. Antibiofilm efficacy of naringin was assessed against the biofilm of mixed S. mutans and C. albicans. The cell viability in mixed biofilm was determined using MTT assay and CLSM investigations. The molecular docking analysis of naringin with secreted aspartic proteinase (SAP2) of C. albicans and glucosyltransferase-I (GtfB) of S. mutans was performed using AutoDock and PyMOL tools. The biocompatibility of naringin was determined on human RBCs and HGF cells.

RESULTS

The natural components such as curcumin, naringin, quercetin, morin, rutin, and hesperetin shows the antimicrobial effects against the clinical isolates S. mutans and C. albicans. Among these, naringin exhibits the significant antimicrobial effect against S. mutans (MIC:183 ± 5.70 µM), C. albicans (MIC:196 ± 0.00 µM), and their mixed culture (MIC:200 ± 10.00 µM). The MTT and CLSM results indicates that 2xMIC (400 µM) of naringin demonstrates the potential eradication of mature biofilm of mixed S. mutans and C. albicans. Naringin establishes the strong binding interaction with enzymes GtfB of S. mutans and SAP2 of C. albicans. The IC50 value of naringin towards HGF cells was noted as 711.5 µM.

CONCLUSIONS

The flavonoid naringin demonstrates the effective and safe therapeutic potential to treat coexisting S. mutans and C. albicans biofilm virulence to prevent the dental caries.