Periodontal disease ranks among the most expensive health conditions to treat, asreported by the World Health Organization (WHO). This is due to the fact thatdiagnosis is based on several specific clinical criteria that employ methods suchas inspection, palpation, probing, and interpretation of radiographic images.However, since these diagnostic tools do not provide information about patientsat risk of developing severe stage periodontal disease, patients are oftenovertreated. Porphyromonas gingivalis is a prevalent bacterium in thesubgingival crevice of patients with periodontal disease and has been termed akeystone pathogen in these conditions. P. gingivalis together with its enzymes,Rgp and Kgp, is therefore of interest as potential biomarkers on which to builddiagnostic tools based on artificial receptors. Firstly, molecularly imprintedpolymers using either the native enzymes or short sequence epitopes from themcan be used to determine the expression level of the enzymes in samples.Secondly, the enzymatic activity can be determined by recording changes inelectrochemical signals before and after hydrolysis of a specially designedpeptide sequence selective for one of the enzymes. Finally, reversible selfassembledmonolayers bearing ligands specific for bacterial adhesion throughmultivalent interactions can potentially be employed to selectively separate anddetect P. gingivalis. Together, they form the foundation for designing acommercially exploitable biosensor that combines detection methods to improvethe accuracy of diagnosis.

Periodontal disease affects supporting dental structures and ranks among one of the top most expensive conditions to treat in the world. Moreover, in recent years, the disease has also been linked to cardiovascular and Alzheimer's diseases. At present, there is a serious lack of accurate diagnostic tools to identify people at severe risk of periodontal disease progression. Porphyromonas gingivalis is often considered one of the most contributing factors towards disease progression. It produces the Arg- and Lys-specific proteases Rgp and Kgp, respectively. Within this work, a short epitope sequence of these proteases is immobilised onto a magnetic nanoparticle platform. These are then used as a template to produce high-affinity, selective molecularly imprinted nanogels, using the common monomers N-tert-butylacrylamide (TBAM), N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAM), and N-(3-aminopropyl) methacrylamide hydrochloride (APMA). N,N-Methylene bis(acrylamide) (BIS) was used as a crosslinking monomer to form the interconnected polymeric network. The produced nanogels were immobilised onto a planar gold surface and characterised using the optical technique of surface plasmon resonance. They showed high selectivity and affinity towards their template, with affinity constants of 79.4 and 89.7 nM for the Rgp and Kgp epitope nanogels, respectively. From their calibration curves, the theoretical limit of detection was determined to be 1.27 nM for the Rgp nanogels and 2.00 nM for the Kgp nanogels. Furthermore, they also showed excellent selectivity against bacterial culture supernatants E8 (Rgp knockout), K1A (Kgp knockout), and W50-d (wild-type) strains in complex medium of brain heart infusion (BHI).

Periodontitis (gum disease) is a common biofilm-mediated oral condition, with around 7% of the adult population suffering from severe disease with risk for tooth loss. Moreover, periodontitis virulence markers have been found in atherosclerotic plaque and brain tissue, suggesting a link to cardiovascular and Alzheimer’s diseases. The lack of accurate, fast, and sensitive clinical methods to identify patients at risk leads, on the one hand, to patients being undiagnosed until the onset of severe disease and, on the other hand, to overtreatment of individuals with mild disease, diverting resources from those patients most in need. The periodontitis-associated bacterium, Porphyromonas gingivalis, secrete gingipains which are highly active proteases recognized as key virulence factors during disease progression. This makes them interesting candidates as predictive biomarkers, but currently, there are no methods in clinical use for monitoring them. Quantifying the levels or proteolytic activity of gingipains in the periodontal pocket surrounding the teeth could enable early-stage disease diagnosis. Here, we report on a monitoring approach based on high-affinity microcontact imprinted polymer-based receptors for the Arg and Lys specific gingipains Rgp and Kgp and their combination with surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based biosensor technology for quantifying gingipain levels in biofluids and patient samples. Therefore, Rgp and Kgp were immobilized on glass coverslips followed by microcontact imprinting of poly-acrylamide based films anchored to gold sensor chips. The monomers selected were N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAM), N-hydroxyethyl acrylamide (HEAA) and N-methacryloyl-4-aminobenzamidine hydrochloride (BAM), with N,N′-methylene bis(acrylamide) (BIS) as the crosslinker. This resulted in imprinted surfaces exhibiting selectivity towards their templates high affinity and selectivity for the templated proteins with dissociation constants (Kd) of 159 and 299 nM for the Rgp- and Kgp-imprinted, surfaces respectively. The former surface displayed even higher affinity (Kd = 71 nM) when tested in dilute cell culture supernatants. Calculated limits of detection for the sensors were 110 and 90 nM corresponding to levels below clinically relevant concentrations.