Team:UCL/amandeep/Dental hygiene
Dental health
The incidence of hypertension increases rapidly with ageing. So, we are developing an antihypertensive dental device which consists of oral bacteria designed to overexpress nitric oxide precursors (L.Arginine) into saliva. Nitrite is swallowed and processed to produce Nitric Oxide which causes vascular relaxation, reducing blood pressure.
Its known that plaque build up leads to gum disease. We have designed pH inducible biobrick, which produces a bacteriocin (lanA), which destroys plaque causing bacteria (S. mutans). Our chassis is a genetically engineered form of S. mutans which is immune to the lanA bacteriocin.
