Efficacy of Antimicrobial Peptide Gh12 on a Multispecies Endodontic Biofilm Model: An Invitro Study

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial efficacy of different concentrations of GH12 on a simulated multispecies biofilm comprising Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus mutans, Fusobacterium nucleatum and Porphyromonas gingivalis.
Methods: Single rooted teeth were decoronated, cut into 1.5mm sections to obtain dentin discs which were randomly allocated into five groups: (n=12), Group 1: Phosphate Buffered Solution (PBS) - negative control, Group II: 5% Sodium Hypochlorite (NaOCl) - positive control, Group III: Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of GH12, Group IV: 2x MIC of GH12, Group V: 4x MIC of GH12. Colony forming units, Crystal violet assay and Scanning electron microscopy were performed. One-way ANOVA and Turkey’s test were applied for statistical analysis using the SPSS software version 22.0.
Results: Group II (NaOCl) showed maximum reduction in bacterial load followed by Group V (GH12 16mg/mL) with no statistically significant difference (Tab. On comparing the mean CFU reduction, maximum reduction was seen for S mutans and the least was seen for P gingivalis.
There was marked erosion observed in the NaOCl group whereas the GH12 group showed no such erosive changes in the morphology and the presence of any bacterial colonies was also not visible
Conclusion: The findings revealed that GH12 at higher concentrations inhibits and disrupts the growth of multispecies endodontic biofilm comparable to NaOCl but without any erosive effects to the dentin, further highlighting its potential to be used as an antimicrobial solution. (EEJ-2023-10-147)