Author Interview: Dr. Masafumi Ihara on “Oral Carriage of Streptococcus mutans Harboring the cnm Gene Relates to an Increased Incidence of Cerebral Microbleeds”

An interview with Dr. Masafumi Ihara, MD, PhD; Head, Department of Neurology, National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Osaka, Japan.
Interviewed by Dr. Saurav Das, MD; Fellow in Vascular Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.
They will be discussing the article “Oral Carriage of Streptococcus mutans Harboring the cnm Gene Relates to an Increased Incidence of Cerebral Microbleeds,” published in the December 2020 issue of Stroke.
Dr. Das: Dr. Ihara, on behalf of the Blogging Stroke team, it is my pleasure to welcome you to this author interview about your publication in Stroke regarding the association between CNM gene-positive Streptococcus mutans and increased incidence of cerebral microbleeds. Given Streptococcus mutans is a common pathogen associated with dental caries, it is a potential treatment target to prevent increase in cerebral microbleeds.
Many of our readers come from a stroke background and may not be as familiar with oral pathology. It will be of interest to start by discussing some common oral pathogens implicated in cerebrovascular disease. Also, what is specific about Streptococcus mutans, and particularly the ones positive for CNM gene?
Dr. Ihara: More than 500 bacterial species have been estimated to exist in the oral cavity, and many remain to be identified and characterized. Of all the known pathogenic oral bacteria, a few have been linked to cerebrovascular diseases. Our co-investigator Prof. Nakano reported that certain strains of Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) are potential risk factors for intracerebral hemorrhage in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats and mice with photochemically induced middle cerebral artery occlusion.1 This corresponds with findings showing periodontal infections to be risk factors for stroke, and that S. mutans is detected in 100% of samples of atherosclerotic plaques. S. mutans is a major pathogen in dental caries that can cause bacteremia by dental procedures, such as tooth extraction and periodontal surgery, or even tooth brushing in daily life. S. mutans is well known to be responsible for infective endocarditis. The hemorrhage-causing S. mutans strains express collagen-binding protein Cnm on their cell surface, enabling them to attach to exposed collagen fibers on the surface of damaged blood vessels and prevent platelet activation, thereby, leading to hemorrhages. Another dental bacterium, Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis), is also found in atherosclerotic plaques and has been linked to the increased risk of ischemic stroke. P. gingivalis adheres to and infects endothelial cells not only to increase the expression of endothelial adhesion molecules and promote monocyte/macrophage infiltration, but also to produce cysteine proteinase gingipains, which activate protease-activated receptors-1 and -4 on platelets to induce platelet aggregation. Thus, infection from P. gingivalis could cause small vessel disease pathology through thrombotic occlusion and BBB disruption through inflammation.