Establishment of a convenient sandwich-ELISA for direct quantification of glucosyltransferase-I: Application for dual diagnosis of dental caries

Previously, we established a convenient enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system targeting glucosyltransferase (GTF)-B derived from Streptococcus mutans for diagnosing caries risk. However, it has been reported that S. sobrinus possesses high cariogenicity and is more frequently detected in highly caries-susceptible patients than S. mutans is. S. sobrinus can secrete GTF-I, an important cariogenic factor for dental plaque formation, as well as S. mutans GTF-B. Therefore, in this study, we developed another feasible ELISA system targeting S. sobrinus GTF-I that would ensure caries risk determination by combined GTF-I and GTF-B levels. A readily measurable sandwich-ELISA system was devised, which consisted of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies against GTF-I. The developed sandwich-ELISA system quantified the purified GTF-I with sensitivity and specificity, and a positive correlation was observed between the amount of GTF-I extracted from clinical plaque samples and S. sobrinus levels. Furthermore, high levels of GTF-I and GTF-B were detected using the sandwich-ELISA system in caries-susceptible subjects. These results indicate that the sandwich-ELISA system against GTF-I developed in this study is useful, and that the dual detection of the caries risk factors GTF-I and GTF-B is helpful for predicting caries risk.