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Indole, a metabolite of the amino acid tryptophan, has been proven to act as a signal molecule in bacteria, acting in different aspects of biofilm formation. The oral biofilm is a type of biofilm that has consequences for human health. It is a complex, three-dimensional structure that develops on the surface of teeth via the attachment of primary microbial colonizers. Many oral infections are caused by an imbalance occurring in the microorganisms naturally found in oral biofilms and are considered major public health concerns. In this study, we test the effect of a natural bis-indole, 3,3′-Diindolylmethane (DIM), in mitigating the pathogenicity of the oral biofilm inhabiting bacterium Streptococcus mutans, a bacterium that is considered to be a principal etiological agent in dental caries. Our study found that DIM was able to attenuate S. mutans biofilm formation by 92%. Additionally, treatment with DIM lowered extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) production and decreased its durability significantly under acidic conditions. Therefore, the anti-biofilm and anti-virulence properties of DIM against S. mutans bacteria in an “oral setting” provides evidence for its usefulness in reducing biofilm formation and potentially for caries attenuation.

Bacterial communication, termed Quorum Sensing (QS), is a promising target for virulence attenuation and the treatment of bacterial infections. Infections cause inflammation, a process regulated by a number of cellular factors, including the transcription Nuclear Factor kappa B (NF-κB); this factor is found to be upregulated in many inflammatory diseases, including those induced by bacterial infection. In this study, we tested 32 synthetic derivatives of coumaperine (CP), a known natural compound found in pepper (Piper nigrum), for Quorum Sensing Inhibition (QSI) and NF-κB inhibitory activities. Of the compounds tested, seven were found to have high QSI activity, three inhibited bacterial growth and five inhibited NF-κB. In addition, some of the CP compounds were active in more than one test. For example, compounds CP-286, CP-215 and CP-158 were not cytotoxic, inhibited NF-κB activation and QS but did not show antibacterial activity. CP-154 inhibited QS, decreased NF-κB activation and inhibited bacterial growth. Our results indicate that these synthetic molecules may provide a basis for further development of novel therapeutic agents against bacterial infections.

Dipolar coupling plays a fundamental role in the interaction between electrically or magnetically polarized species such as magnetic atoms and dipolar molecules in a gas or dipolar excitons in the solid state. Unlike Coulomb or contactlike interactions found in many atomic, molecular, and condensed-matter systems, this interaction is long-ranged and highly anisotropic, as it changes from repulsive to attractive depending on the relative positions and orientation of the dipoles. Because of this unique property, many exotic, symmetry-breaking collective states have been recently predicted for cold dipolar gases, but only a few have been experimentally detected and only in dilute atomic dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates. Here, we report on the first observation of attractive dipolar coupling between excitonic dipoles using a new design of stacked semiconductor bilayers. We show that the presence of a dipolar exciton fluid in one bilayer modifies the spatial distribution and increases the binding energy of excitonic dipoles in a vertically remote layer. The binding energy changes are explained using a many-body polaron model describing the deformation of the exciton cloud due to its interaction with a remote dipolar exciton. The surprising nonmonotonic dependence on the cloud density indicates the important role of dipolar correlations, which is unique to dense, strongly interacting dipolar solid-state systems. Our concept provides a route for the realization of dipolar lattices with strong anisotropic interactions in semiconductor systems, which open the way for the observation of theoretically predicted new and exotic collective phases, as well as for engineering and sensing their collective excitations.