Health and Medical Research Fund

Several faculty members received Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF) from the Food and Health Bureau lately:

Staff: Professor CH Chu, Clinical Professor in Cariology

Project Title: A novel tooth-binding graphene quantum dot silver nanoparticles for dental caries management

Over 80% of local adult population suffers caries and acid-producing bacteria in oral cavity is one major pathological factor in the cariogenic process. Therapy against cariogenic bacteria depends on the effect of the antimicrobial agent and the maintenance of its effective local concentration. However, antimicrobial compounds have short period of validity due to fluctuant oral environment, hence, it is critical to develop tooth-binding antimicrobials to maintain their effective local concentration and therefore improve the antimicrobial efficacy.

In the project, a tooth-binding graphene quantum dot silver nanoparticles will be synthesized and characterized. Then the caries prevention effects of the silver nanoparticles will be assessed, including its effects on cariogenic bacteria and tooth tissue. The team will carry out measurement by 1. Synthesis and characterization of the tooth-binding silver nanoparticles. 2. Antimicrobial effect on cariogenic biofilm. 3. Mineralisation and colour effect on tooth tissue.

The team would like to learn the silver nanoparticles can bind to tooth surface and inhibit caries progress which can apply to caries management.

Staff: Professor Tonetti, Maurizio, Clinical Professor in Periodontology

Project Title: Self-detection and professional screening strategies for early detection of periodontitis: diagnostic accuracy of bleeding on brushing, salivary aMMP-8 and CDC/AAP screening

Severe periodontitis is one of the most important causes of disability and human suffering and it has important economic impact in terms of costs and loss in productivity. As it affects disproportionally the vulnerable segments of the population it is considered a major health and policy issue. One of the major challenges – common to many chronic and debilitating human diseases – is diagnosis of the disease only in the later stages in which disability and need for advanced treatments are common. From the Green Paper of Professor Tonetti et al in, 2017, it is believed that early detection of periodontitis through self-diagnosis has the potential to radically change the ability to treat periodontitis and prevent progression to later disease stages in a simple and cost-effective way.

The project targets to assess diagnostic performance of: i) bleeding on brushing (BoB) as a sentinel sign, ii) salivary aMMP-8 as a biomarker, iii) a validated questionnaire alone and/or in combination for the early detection of periodontitis and to prove combination of self-assessment of BoB with a biomarker will improve screening accuracy and efficiency. The idea of validating a sentinel sign for self-detection has been extremely successful in human diseases (as an example let’s just remember the impact of breast self-examination for early detection of nodules). A sentinel sign should be highly sensitive but usually suffers from a high rate of false positives. These are usually dealt with with a second confirmatory test and eventually to clinical diagnosis.

The project will involve two studies: i) a convenience sample of adult and elderly reporting for oral health care and ii) a validation sample drawn from the Hong Kong adult and elderly population. These studies will consist of cross sectional diagnostic trials with blind comparisons. It will assess 3 index diagnostic tests of periodontitis: Questionnaire in Chinese, salivary aMMP-8 and BoB.

The Team’s hypothesis is that the combination of patient self-detection of BoB and aMMP-8 will lead to earlier, more accurate and cost-efficient screening of the population and allow better prevention and treatment leading to improved health outcomes and cost savings.

Staff: Professor May Wong, Professor in Dental Public Health

Project Title: Health Belief Model for empowering parental toothbrushing and sugar intake control in reducing early childhood caries among young children – a cluster randomized controlled trial

The project aims to investigate the effectiveness of the Health Belief Model (HBM)-based intervention using text messages to promote the parental toothbrushing and sugar intake control for their children and to reduce early childhood caries (ECC) of children at age 4 years old compared to conventional oral health education.

Parents and their children who are studying at nurseries or kindergartens will be recruited and randomised into two groups: intervention and control. The former group will attend one oral health talk and participating parents will receive text messages (Oral health care information and tips- guided by HBM) via mobile phones in the following 48 weeks; while parents in control group will only attend a talk. The project team will then compare the ECC of children at age 4 of the two groups.

Staff: Dr Waruna L Dissanayaka, Research Assistant Professor in Biomedical and Tissue Engineering

Project Title: Spheroids of HIF-1a-stabilized SHED as vascularization units for the treatment of peripheral tissue ischemia

The objective of the proposed study is to examine the potential of scaffold-free spheroids of hypoxia pre-conditioned stem cells from deciduous teeth (SHED) as units of vascularization in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease.

The project comprises of two parts: (i) To exploit HIF-1α stabilization and 3D self-assembly into spheroids to differentiate SHED into functional endothelial cells. (ii) To utilize spheroids of HIF-1α-stabilized-SHED in an injectable hydrogel scaffold as vascularization units for the revascularization of peripheral ischemic tissues in a mouse model.

The team expects that the combinatory approach of scaffold-free and scaffold-based methods will provide a biomimetic microenvironment for endothelial differentiation and vascular sprouting while facilitating spatial arrangement of the spheroids with adequate mechanical properties. The success of the project will pave the way to develop a novel and viable approach for bio- engineering of vascularization units for the treatment of peripheral vascular disease.

Staff: Dr Duangporn Duangthip, Professor Edward Lo and Professor CH Chu

Project Title: We-Smile@Kindergarten: promoting oral health in preschool children with effective evidence-based approaches

In view of the latest territory-wide oral health survey conducted by the Hong Kong Government of Hong Kong revealing that half of the 5-year-old children were suffering from tooth decay with over 90% of their decayed teeth were left untreated, the team proposed the project by adopting effective evidence-based approaches, to: 1) prevent and arrest tooth decay, and improve the oral health of preschool children; 2) enhance the dental knowledge and attitudes of parents towards caring for the oral health of their children; 3) empower kindergarten teachers to promote child oral health.

The team provides dental examination and fluoride therapy to approximately 5,000 preschool children in 20 kindergartens every year. Oral health talks and training courses are also organised to parents and kindergarten teachers respectively.

Along the service, the team also collects data on oral health-related, social and economic impacts of the project, as well as the parents’ opinions on and willingness to pay for the services in this type of dental service in the future. The team wishes to share their knowledge and experience to dental service provider and public health workers for enhancing the development of dental care programmes for preschool children.

For more information about HMRF, please visit: https://rfs1.fhb.gov.hk/english/funds/funds_hmrf/funds_hmrf_abt/funds_hmrf_abt.shtml

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