Lorena Isbej; Natacha Oyarzo; María José Contreras; Duniel Ortuño; Marusella Lam & Patricia García

Summary

Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) is a microorganism frequently isolated in patients with periodontitis, which also include those of Chilean population. The "Keystone bacteria" model demonstrated that P. gingivalis induces dysbiosis of the subgingival biofilm and allows the development of some species over others, modulating the pathogenicity of the entire microbiological community. The treatment of periodontitis is mainly mechanical; nevertheless, under specific conditions the complement with antibiotherapy is needed. Global studies of antibiotics evaluated in clinical trials and in vitro studies have shown mixed results in terms of efficacy and susceptibility. This descriptive study aimed to evaluate antimicrobial susceptibility profile in vitro to metronidazole, clindamycin, amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid, moxifloxacin and azithromycin of P. gingivalis isolated from Chilean periodontal patients. Microbiological samples were obtained from patients with a diagnosis of generalized periodontitis stages III and IV, which were exposed to identification processes by a mass spectrometer (MALDI-TOF MS). Subsequently, the gold standard susceptibility protocol for the five antimicrobials evaluated was applied to each P. gingivalis-positive sample (Dilution in Brucella-McFarland Blood Agar 0.5). 50 patients (25 women, 25 men) between 34-69 years old were selected. Finally, 25 P. gingivalis strains (50 %) were recovered for susceptibility testing and all of them were susceptible to all antibiotics tested (100 % susceptibility). P. gingivalis strains were highly susceptible to the five antibiotics evaluated in this population, which could implies counting different antimicrobial pharmacological treatment alternatives as a complement to conventional mechanical treatment in specific patients.

KEY WORDS: Porphyromonas gingivalis, periodontitis, drug resistance, bacterial, microbial sensitivity tests.

How to cite this article

ISBEJ, L.; OYARZO, N.; CONTRERAS, M. J.; ORTUÑO, D.; LAM, M. & GARCÍA, P. Evaluation of the antimicrobial susceptibility of Porphyromonas gingivalis isolated from periodontal patients in chilean population. Int. J. Odontostomat., 16(2):279-284, 2022.