Anticariogenic casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium fluoride phosphate

Funded Activity Summary

Dental caries (tooth decay) is initiated by demineralisation of tooth hard tissue by organic acids produced by dental plaque bacteria from dietary sugars. The disease is a major public health problem and has an estimated economic burden in Australia of over $1 billion p.a. being higher than that for any other dietary-related disease. We have discovered and patented a novel amorphous calcium fluoride phosphate that is stabilised by phosphopeptides from the bovine milk protein casein. These complexes, designated CPP-ACFP, have the potential to provide superior clinical efficacy in preventing dental caries and treating and repairing early stages of disease. The aims of this project therefore are (i) to develop topical formulations of CPP-ACFP for application to teeth to repair early stages of decay and (ii) to characterise the three-dimensional structure of the CPP-ACFP complexes. The significance of this work is that a superior and novel treatment for dental caries may be developed as well as providing insight into the structure of organically-stabilised amorphous calcium phosphate and its role in biomineralisation processes.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2002

End Date: 01-01-2004

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $415,140.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Dental Therapy

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

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Other Keywords

Amorphous calcium fluoride phosphate | Amorphous calcium phosphate | Biomedical applications | Dental caries | Fluorides | Hypomineralisation | Phosphopeptides | Prevention | Remineralisation

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