非编码RNA在调控变异链球菌致龋性中的作用与机制研究进展

doi:10.13591/j.cnki.kqyx.2026.01.012

Abstract

Abstract:

Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), a class of regulatory RNAs, have demonstrated potential to fine-tune bacterial pathogenicity at physiological doses. This offers the dual benefit of reducing antibiotic resistance and minimizing cytotoxic effects, providing a novel strategy for infection control. ncRNAs of Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) are widely distributed throughout the bacterial transcriptome and regulate the expression of virulence factors, biofilm formation, and stress responses through interactions with RNA, DNA, and proteins. Moreover, they participate in regulatory networks that collectively influence the development and progression of dental caries. This review summarizes the biological functions, regulatory mechanisms, and application prospects of ncRNAs in S. mutans, aiming to provide new insights for the development of small-molecule anti-caries materials.

Key words: Streptococcus mutans, noncoding RNAs, cariogenicity, regulatory mechanisms

CLC Number:

R781.1

ZHOU Yue, DENG Yalan, HU Tao. Advances in the regulatory role and mechanisms of noncoding RNAs on cariogenicity of Streptococcus mutans[J]. Stomatology, 2026, 46(1): 70-75.

Figures/Tables 1

References 53

[1]	Qin XF, Zi H, Zeng XJ. Changes in the global burden of untreated dental caries from 1990 to 2019: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease study[J]. Heliyon, 2022, 8(9): e10714. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10714
[2]	Li ZY, Yu CH, Chen H. Global, regional, and national caries of permanent teeth incidence, prevalence, and disability-adjusted life years, 1990—2021: Analysis for the global burden of disease study[J]. BMC Oral Health, 2025, 25(1): 715. doi: 10.1186/s12903-025-06086-z
[3]	Zeng YH, Chen Y, Duan CC, et al. A transcriptional analysis showing the effects of GH12 combined with fluoride for suppressing the acidogenicity of Streptococcus mutans biofilms[J]. Microorganisms, 2023, 11(7): 1796. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms11071796
[4]	Atazhanova GA, Levaya YK, Badekova KZ, et al. Inhibition of the biofilm formation of plant Streptococcus mutans[J]. Pharmaceuticals, 2024, 17(12): 1613. doi: 10.3390/ph17121613
[5]	Namburu JR, Rajendra Sanosh AB, Poosarla CS, et al. Streptococcus mutans-specific antimicrobial peptide C16G2-mediated caries prevention: A review[J]. Front Dent, 2022, 19: 17.
[6]	Gao Z, Chen XY, Wang C, et al. New strategies and mechanisms for targeting Streptococcus mutans biofilm formation to prevent dental caries: A review[J]. Microbiol Res, 2024, 278: 127526. doi: 10.1016/j.micres.2023.127526
[7]	Ng Kwan Lim E, Sasseville C, Carrier MC, et al. Keeping up with RNA-based regulation in bacteria: New roles for RNA binding proteins[J]. Trends Genet, 2021, 37(1): 86-97. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2020.09.014 pmid: 33077249
[8]	Shi L, Han X, Liu F, et al. Review on long non-coding RNAs as biomarkers and potentially therapeutic targets for bacterial infections[J]. Curr Issues Mol Biol, 2024: 7558-7576.
[9]	Pals MJ, Lindberg A, Velema WA. Chemical strategies for antisense antibiotics[J]. Chem Soc Rev, 2024, 53(23): 11303-11320. doi: 10.1039/d4cs00238e pmid: 39436264
[10]	Papenfort K, Storz G. Insights into bacterial metabolism from small RNAs[J]. Cell Chem Biol, 2024, 31(9): 1571-1577. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2024.07.002 pmid: 39094580
[11]	Yang Y, Wang L, Liu L, et al. Small noncoding RNA in Streptococci: From regulatory functions to drug development[J]. Mol Oral Microbiol, 2023, 38(4): 251-258. doi: 10.1111/omi.v38.4
[12]	Krieger MC, Merritt J, Raghavan R. Genome-wide identification of novel sRNAs in Streptococcus mutans[J]. J Bacteriol, 2022, 204(4): e0057721. doi: 10.1128/jb.00577-21
[13]	Drummond IY, DePaolo A, Krieger M, et al. Small regulatory RNAs are mediators of the Streptococcus mutans SloR regulon[J]. J Bacteriol, 2023, 205(9): e0017223. doi: 10.1128/jb.00172-23
[14]	Li J, Ma QZ, Huang J, et al. Small RNA SmsR1 modulates acidogenicity and cariogenic virulence by affecting protein acetylation in Streptococcus mutans[J]. PLoS Pathog, 2024, 20(4): e1012147. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1012147
[15]	Lei L, Zhang B, Mao M, et al. Carbohydrate metabolism regulated by antisense vicR RNA in cariogenicity[J]. J Dent Res, 2020, 99(2): 204-213. doi: 10.1177/0022034519890570 pmid: 31821772
[16]	Silverman A, Melamed S. Biological insights from RNA-RNA interactomes in bacteria, as revealed by RIL-seq[J]. Methods Mol Biol, 2025, 2866: 189-206. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-4192-7_11 pmid: 39546204
[17]	Wang TB, Tague N, Whelan SA, et al. Programmable gene regulation for metabolic engineering using decoy transcription factor binding sites[J]. Nucleic Acids Res, 2021, 49(2): 1163-1172. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaa1234 pmid: 33367820
[18]	Sun YT, Chen H, Xu MM, et al. Exopolysaccharides metabolism and cariogenesis of Streptococcus mutans biofilm regulated by antisense vicK RNA[J]. J Oral Microbiol, 2023, 15(1): 2204250. doi: 10.1080/20002297.2023.2204250
[19]	Evguenieva-Hackenberg E. Riboregulation in bacteria: From general principles to novel mechanisms of the trp attenuator and its sRNA and peptide products[J]. Wiley Interdiscip Rev RNA, 2022, 13(3): e1696. doi: 10.1002/wrna.v13.3
[20]	Yin LP, Zhu WH, Chen DR, et al. Small noncoding RNA sRNA0426 is involved in regulating biofilm formation in Streptococcus mutans[J]. Microbiologyopen, 2020, 9(9): e1096. doi: 10.1002/mbo3.v9.9
[21]	胡桐楠, 郑伟, 李少华, 等. 不同pH条件下高低致龋性变异链球菌sRNA SpR19及其潜在靶标GroEL的表达变化[J]. 南方医科大学学报, 2017, 37(6): 802-806.
[22]	Diallo I, Ho J, Lalaouna D, et al. RNA sequencing unveils very small RNAs with potential regulatory functions in bacteria[J]. Front Mol Biosci, 2022, 9: 914991. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2022.914991
[23]	Ferrara S, Brignoli T, Bertoni G. Little reason to call them small noncoding RNAs[J]. Front Microbiol, 2023, 14: 1191166. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1191166
[24]	Kotsira V, Skoufos G, Alexiou A, et al. Agnodice: Indexing experimentally supported bacterial sRNA-RNA interactions[J]. mBio, 2024, 15(3): e0301023. doi: 10.1128/mbio.03010-23
[25]	Mao MY, Yang YM, Li KZ, et al. The rnc gene promotes exopolysaccharide synthesis and represses the vicRKX gene expressions via microRNA-size small RNAs in Streptococcus mutans[J]. Front Microbiol, 2016, 7: 687.
[26]	Sinha NK, Iwasa J, Shen PS, et al. Dicer uses distinct modules for recognizing dsRNA termini[J]. Science, 2018, 359(6373): 329-334. doi: 10.1126/science.aaq0921 pmid: 29269422
[27]	Tian YT, Zhang Y, Zhang MJ, et al. Antisense vicR-loaded dendritic mesoporous silica nanoparticles regulate the biofilm organization and cariogenicity of Streptococcus mutans[J]. Int J Nanomedicine, 2022, 17: 1255-1272. doi: 10.2147/IJN.S334785
[28]	Lei L, Zhang Y, Xu YC, et al. Spermine-starch nanoparticles with antisense vicR suppress Streptococcus mutans cariogenicity[J]. J Mater Chem B, 2023, 11(25): 5752-5766. doi: 10.1039/d2tb02628g pmid: 37219356
[29]	Lejars M, Hajnsdorf E. Bacterial RNase Ⅲ: Targets and physiol-ogy[J]. Biochimie, 2024, 217: 54-65. doi: 10.1016/j.biochi.2023.07.009
[30]	Lei L, Stipp RN, Chen T, et al. Activity of Streptococcus mutans VicR is modulated by antisense RNA[J]. J Dent Res, 2018, 97(13): 1477-1484. doi: 10.1177/0022034518781765 pmid: 29969955
[31]	Senadheera MD, Guggenheim B, Spatafora GA, et al. A VicRK signal transduction system in Streptococcus mutans affects gtfBCD, gbpB, and ftf expression, biofilm formation, and genetic competence development[J]. J Bacteriol, 2005, 187(12): 4064-4076. pmid: 15937169
[32]	Lu YY, Zhang HY, Li M, et al. The rnc gene regulates the microstructure of exopolysaccharide in the biofilm of Streptococcus mutans through the β-monosaccharides[J]. Caries Res, 2021, 55(5): 534-545. doi: 10.1159/000518462
[33]	Zhang AQ, Chen JM, Gong T, et al. Deletion of csn2 gene affects acid tolerance and exopolysaccharide synthesis in Streptococcus mutans[J]. Mol Oral Microbiol, 2020, 35(5): 211-221. doi: 10.1111/omi.v35.5
[34]	Kang DY, Kim A, Kim JN. CcpA and CodY regulate CRISPR-cas system of Streptococcus mutans[J]. Microbiol Spectr, 2023, 11(4): e0182623. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.01826-23
[35]	Mosterd C, Moineau S. Insight into crRNA processing in Streptococcus mutans P42S and application of SmutCas9 in genome editing[J]. Int J Mol Sci, 2025, 26(5): 2005. doi: 10.3390/ijms26052005
[36]	Xu ZL, Chen SZ, Wu WY, et al. Type I CRISPR-Cas-mediated microbial gene editing and regulation[J]. AIMS Microbiol, 2023, 9(4): 780-800. doi: 10.3934/microbiol.2023040 pmid: 38173969
[37]	Mosterd C, Moineau S. Characterization of a type Ⅱ-a CRISPR-cas system in Streptococcus mutans[J]. mSphere, 2020, 5(3): e00235-20.
[38]	Gong T, Tang BY, Zhou XD, et al. Genome editing in Streptococcus mutans through self-targeting CRISPR arrays[J]. Mol Oral Microbiol, 2018, 33(6): 440-449. doi: 10.1111/omi.12247 pmid: 30329221
[39]	Tang BY, Gong T, Zhou XD, et al. Deletion of cas3 gene in Streptococcus mutans affects biofilm formation and increases fluoride sensitivity[J]. Arch Oral Biol, 2019, 99: 190-197. doi: 10.1016/j.archoralbio.2019.01.016
[40]	Serbanescu MA, Cordova M, Krastel K, et al. Role of the Streptococcus mutans CRISPR-cas systems in immunity and cell physiology[J]. J Bacteriol, 2015, 197(4): 749-761. doi: 10.1128/JB.02333-14 pmid: 25488301
[41]	Kim P, Sanchez AM, Penke TJR, et al. Safety, pharmacokine-tics, and pharmacodynamics of LBP-EC01, a CRISPR-Cas3-enhanced bacteriophage cocktail, in uncomplicated urinary tract infections due to Escherichia coli (ELIMINATE): The randomised, open-label, first part of a two-part phase 2 trial[J]. Lancet Infect Dis, 2024, 24(12): 1319-1332. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(24)00424-9
[42]	Lai YJ, Yakhnin H, Pannuri A, et al. CsrA regulation via binding to the base-pairing small RNA Spot 42[J]. Mol Microbiol, 2022, 117(1): 32-53. doi: 10.1111/mmi.v117.1
[43]	Svensson SL, Chao YJ. RNase Ⅲ-CLASH brings bacterial RNA networks into focus[J]. Trends Microbiol, 2022, 30(12): 1125-1127. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2022.09.012 pmid: 36184448
[44]	Lu YY, Lei L, Deng YL, et al. RNase Ⅲ coding genes modulate the cross-Kingdom biofilm of Streptococcus mutans and Candida albicans[J]. Front Microbiol, 2022, 13: 957879. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.957879
[45]	Weeks R, Ostermeier M. Fitness and functional landscapes of the E. coli RNase Ⅲ gene rnc[J]. Mol Biol Evol, 2023, 40(3): msad047.
[46]	Mediati DG, Wong JL, Gao W, et al. RNase Ⅲ-CLASH of multi-drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus reveals a regulatory mRNA 3'UTR required for intermediate vancomycin resistance[J]. Nat Commun, 2022, 13(1): 3558. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31177-8 pmid: 35732665
[47]	McKellar SW, Ivanova I, Arede P, et al. RNase Ⅲ CLASH in MRSA uncovers sRNA regulatory networks coupling metabolism to toxin expression[J]. Nat Commun, 2022, 13(1): 3560. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-31173-y pmid: 35732654
[48]	Jagtap U, Anderson ES, Slack FJ. The emerging value of circular noncoding RNA research in cancer diagnosis and treatment[J]. Cancer Res, 2023, 83(6): 809-813. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-22-3014 pmid: 36919419
[49]	Yu S, Xu MM, Wang Z, et al. S. mutans antisense vicK RNA over-expression plus antibacterial dimethylaminohexadecyl methacrylate suppresses oral biofilms and protects enamel hardness in extracted human teeth[J]. Pathogens, 2024, 13(8): 707. doi: 10.3390/pathogens13080707
[50]	Chi HT, White MF. RNA processing by the CRISPR-associated NYN ribonuclease[J]. Biochem J, 2024, 481(12): 793-804. doi: 10.1042/BCJ20240151 pmid: 38785320
[51]	Zakrzewska M, Burmistrz M. Mechanisms regulating the CRISPR-cas systems[J]. Front Microbiol, 2023, 14: 1060337. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1060337
[52]	Navarro C, Díaz MP, Duran P, et al. CRISPR-cas systems: A functional perspective and innovations[J]. Int J Mol Sci, 2025, 26(8): 3645. doi: 10.3390/ijms26083645
[53]	Lemak S, Serbanescu MA, Khusnutdinova AN, et al. Structural and biochemical insights into CRISPR RNA processing by the Cas5c ribonuclease SMU1763 from Streptococcus mutans[J]. J Biol Chem, 2021, 297(5): 101251. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2021.101251

Advances in the regulatory role and mechanisms of noncoding RNAs on cariogenicity of Streptococcus mutans

RichHTML

PDF (PC)

Knowledge

Abstract

Cite this article

share this article

Figures/Tables 1

References 53

Related Articles 4

Recommended Articles

Metrics

Comments

[1]	CHANG Xingtao, HU Jiaxin, SUN Jiangling, ZHANG Jiqin, CHEN Xianrun, BAI Guohui, LUO Yi. The inhibitory impact of natural antibacterial biomaterials on Streptococcus mutans and its associated biofilm formation [J]. Stomatology, 2025, 45(3): 235-240.
[2]	ZHU Han, FANG Yuankai, CAO Haitao, WU Rong, QIU Dihong. Preliminary research on the anti-caries effect of Lactobacillus plantarum mouthwash [J]. Stomatology, 2025, 45(11): 849-853.
[3]	ZHANG Lunqi,WANG Kun,ZHANG Linglin. Research progress of propolis on prevention and treatment of caries [J]. Stomatology, 2023, 43(4): 371-375.
[4]	YUAN Wenjin, HAN Jiaqi, YANG Jie, DONG Ning, JIANG Qiu. Research progress of synthetic antimicrobial peptides in prevention and treatment of dental caries [J]. Stomatology, 2022, 42(12): 1129-1133.