European survey on criteria of aesthetics for periodontal evaluation: The ESCAPE study

Objective: The ESCAPE multicentre survey was designed to (a) compare the agreement of three relevant aesthetic scoring systems among different centres, and (b) evaluate the reproducibility of each question of the questionnaires. / Materials and Methods: EFP centres (n = 14) were involved in an e‐survey. Forty‐two participants (28 teachers, 14 postgraduate students) were asked to score the one‐year aesthetic outcomes of photographs using the Before–After Scoring System (BASS), the Pink Esthetic Score (PES) and the Root coverage Esthetic Score (RES). Mean values of kappa statistics performed on each question were provided to resume global agreement of each method. / Results: Between teachers, a difference of kappa ≥ 0.41 (p = .01) was found for BASS (75%) and PES (57%). Similarly, RES (84%) and PES (57%) were different (p < .001). No difference was found between BASS (75%) and RES (84%). No difference was found between students, whatever the scoring system. Questions of each scoring system showed differences in their reproducibility. / Conclusions: The outcomes of this study indicate that BASS and RES scoring systems are reproducible tools to evaluate aesthetic after root coverage therapies between different centres. Among the various variables, lack of scar, degree of root coverage, colour match and gingival margin that follows the CEJ show the best reliability

Elucidating the Mechanisms of Influenza Virus Recognition by Ncr1

Natural killer (NK) cells are innate cytotoxic lymphocytes that specialize in the defense against viral infection and oncogenic transformation. Their action is tightly regulated by signals derived from inhibitory and activating receptors; the later include proteins such as the Natural Cytotoxicity Receptors (NCRs: NKp46, NKp44 and NKp30). Among the NCRs, NKp46 is the only receptor that has a mouse orthologue named Ncr1. NKp46/Ncr1 is also a unique marker expressed on NK and on Lymphoid tissue inducer (LTI) cells and it was implicated in the control of various viral infections, cancer and diabetes. We have previously shown that human NKp46 recognizes viral hemagglutinin (HA) in a sialic acid-dependent manner and that the O-glycosylation is essential for the NKp46 binding to viral HA. Here we studied the molecular interactions between Ncr1 and influenza viruses. We show that Ncr1 recognizes influenza virus in a sialic acid dependent manner and that N-glycosylation is important for this binding. Surprisingly we demonstrate that none of the predicted N-glycosilated residues of Ncr1 are essential for its binding to influenza virus and we thus conclude that other, yet unidentified N-glycosilated residues are responsible for its recognition. We have demonstrated that N glycosylation play little role in the recognition of mouse tumor cell lines and also showed the in-vivo importance of Ncr1 in the control of influenza virus infection by infecting C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice knockout for Ncr1 with influenza

Direct Recognition of Fusobacterium nucleatum by the NK Cell Natural Cytotoxicity Receptor NKp46 Aggravates Periodontal Disease

Periodontitis is a common human chronic inflammatory disease that results in the destruction of the tooth attachment apparatus and tooth loss. Although infections with periopathogenic bacteria such as Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) and Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) are essential for inducing periodontitis, the nature and magnitude of the disease is determined by the host's immune response. Here, we investigate the role played by the NK killer receptor NKp46 (NCR1 in mice), in the pathogenesis of periodontitis. Using an oral infection periodontitis model we demonstrate that following F. nucleatum infection no alveolar bone loss is observed in mice deficient for NCR1 expression, whereas around 20% bone loss is observed in wild type mice and in mice infected with P. gingivalis. By using subcutaneous chambers inoculated with F. nucleatum we demonstrate that immune cells, including NK cells, rapidly accumulate in the chambers and that this leads to a fast and transient, NCR1-dependant TNF-α secretion. We further show that both the mouse NCR1 and the human NKp46 bind directly to F. nucleatum and we demonstrate that this binding is sensitive to heat, to proteinase K and to pronase treatments. Finally, we show in vitro that the interaction of NK cells with F. nucleatum leads to an NCR1-dependent secretion of TNF-α. Thus, the present study provides the first evidence that NCR1 and NKp46 directly recognize a periodontal pathogen and that this interaction influences the outcome of F. nucleatum-mediated periodontitis