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SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Significance of Oral Health Management in the Era of “the New Normal with COVID-19”

More than a year ago, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, with the world approaching its fourth wave. During this period, vaccines were developed in a much shorter p...

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Autores principales: Imai, Kenichi, Tanaka, Hajime
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8235682/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34207046
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22126527
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author Imai, Kenichi
Tanaka, Hajime
author_facet Imai, Kenichi
Tanaka, Hajime
author_sort Imai, Kenichi
collection PubMed
description More than a year ago, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, with the world approaching its fourth wave. During this period, vaccines were developed in a much shorter period than thought possible, with the initiation of the pertinent vaccination. However, oral cavities have come under renewed scrutiny worldwide because saliva, a mixture of salivary secretions, pharyngeal secretions, and gingival crevicular fluid, have not only been shown to contain infective viral loads, mediating the route of SARS-CoV-2 transmission via droplet, aerosol, or contagion, but also used as a sample for viral RNA testing with a usefulness comparable to the nasopharyngeal swab. The oral cavity is an important portal for ingress of SARS-CoV-2, being an entryway to the bronchi, alveoli, and rest of the lower respiratory tract, causing inflammation by viral infection. Moreover, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, a host receptor for SARS-CoV-2, coupled with proteases responsible for viral entry have been found to be expressed on the tongue and other oral mucosae, suggesting that the oral cavity is the site of virus replication and propagation. Furthermore, there is a possibility that the aspiration of oral bacteria (such as periodontal pathogens) along with saliva into the lower respiratory tract may be a complicating factor for COVID-19 because chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes are known COVID-19 comorbidities with a greater risk of disease aggravation and higher death rate. These comorbidities have a strong connection to chronic periodontitis and periodontal pathogens, and an oral health management is an effective measure to prevent these comorbidities. In addition, oral bacteria, particularly periodontal pathogens, could be proinflammatory stimulants to respiratory epithelia upon its exposure to aspirated bacteria. Therefore, it may be expected that oral health management not only prevents comorbidities involved in aggravating COVID-19 but also has an effect against COVID-19 progression. This review discusses the significance of oral health management in SARS-CoV-2 infection in the era of “the new normal with COVID-19” and COVID-19 prevention with reference to the hypothetical mechanisms that the authors and the other researchers have proposed.
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spelling pubmed-82356822021-06-27 SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Significance of Oral Health Management in the Era of “the New Normal with COVID-19” Imai, Kenichi Tanaka, Hajime Int J Mol Sci Review More than a year ago, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, with the world approaching its fourth wave. During this period, vaccines were developed in a much shorter period than thought possible, with the initiation of the pertinent vaccination. However, oral cavities have come under renewed scrutiny worldwide because saliva, a mixture of salivary secretions, pharyngeal secretions, and gingival crevicular fluid, have not only been shown to contain infective viral loads, mediating the route of SARS-CoV-2 transmission via droplet, aerosol, or contagion, but also used as a sample for viral RNA testing with a usefulness comparable to the nasopharyngeal swab. The oral cavity is an important portal for ingress of SARS-CoV-2, being an entryway to the bronchi, alveoli, and rest of the lower respiratory tract, causing inflammation by viral infection. Moreover, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, a host receptor for SARS-CoV-2, coupled with proteases responsible for viral entry have been found to be expressed on the tongue and other oral mucosae, suggesting that the oral cavity is the site of virus replication and propagation. Furthermore, there is a possibility that the aspiration of oral bacteria (such as periodontal pathogens) along with saliva into the lower respiratory tract may be a complicating factor for COVID-19 because chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes are known COVID-19 comorbidities with a greater risk of disease aggravation and higher death rate. These comorbidities have a strong connection to chronic periodontitis and periodontal pathogens, and an oral health management is an effective measure to prevent these comorbidities. In addition, oral bacteria, particularly periodontal pathogens, could be proinflammatory stimulants to respiratory epithelia upon its exposure to aspirated bacteria. Therefore, it may be expected that oral health management not only prevents comorbidities involved in aggravating COVID-19 but also has an effect against COVID-19 progression. This review discusses the significance of oral health management in SARS-CoV-2 infection in the era of “the new normal with COVID-19” and COVID-19 prevention with reference to the hypothetical mechanisms that the authors and the other researchers have proposed. MDPI 2021-06-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8235682/ /pubmed/34207046 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22126527 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Imai, Kenichi
Tanaka, Hajime
SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Significance of Oral Health Management in the Era of “the New Normal with COVID-19”
title SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Significance of Oral Health Management in the Era of “the New Normal with COVID-19”
title_full SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Significance of Oral Health Management in the Era of “the New Normal with COVID-19”
title_fullStr SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Significance of Oral Health Management in the Era of “the New Normal with COVID-19”
title_full_unstemmed SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Significance of Oral Health Management in the Era of “the New Normal with COVID-19”
title_short SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Significance of Oral Health Management in the Era of “the New Normal with COVID-19”
title_sort sars-cov-2 infection and significance of oral health management in the era of “the new normal with covid-19”
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8235682/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34207046
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms22126527
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