Periodontal Pathogens’ strategies disarm neutrophils to promote dysregulated inflammation

AbstractPeriodontitis is an irreversible, chronic inflammatory disease where inflammophilic pathogenic microbial communities accumulate in the gingival crevice. Neutrophils are a major component of the innate host response against bacterial challenge, and under homeostatic conditions, their microbicidal functions typically protect the host against periodontitis. However, a number of periodontal pathogens developed survival strategies to evade neutrophil microbicidal functions while promoting inflammation, which provides a source of nutrients for bacterial growth. Research on periodontal pathogens has largely focused on a few established species: Tannerella forsythia, Treponema denticola, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, and Porphyromonas gingivalis. However, advances in culture‐independent techniques have facilitated the identification of new bacterial species in periodontal lesions, such as the two Gram‐positive anaerobes, Filifactor alocis and Peptoanaerobacter stomatis, whose characterization of pathogenic potential has not been fully described. Additionally, there is not a full understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms used against neutrophils by