Newer congeners of doxycycline - do they hold promise for periodontal therapy?

Introduction: Periodontitis is a very common polymicrobial infection of the oral cavity with wide systemic implications. It is influenced by multiple aspects, such as virulence of bacteria, the host response and resistance of bacteria to antibiotics, both within and outside the biofilm. Commonly, antibiotics are employed to break this vicious activity of microbes. There is a lacuna in the literature regarding the comparative efficacy of newer congeners of doxycycline. The aim of the study was to objectively compare the binding capacity of newer congeners of doxycycline with clinically significant targets relevant to periodontitis. Material and methods: A total of 5 drugs, viz. doxycycline, tigecycline, eravacycline, sarecycline and omadacycline, were selected, and molecular docking studies were performed with four targets: gingipain, FimA, interleukin-1ß and estrogen receptor ß. The studies were performed using AutoDock version 4. The results were reported based on the binding free energy, electrostatic interaction and intermolecular attraction. These values were compared and reported. Results: The drugs selected showed good binding to all four targets but had many differences in binding efficacy. Omadacycline, tigecycline, sarecycline, and doxycycline revealed 100% binding efficacy by occupying the core amino acid residues (444 HIS, 477 CYS and 388 ASP) over the target protein. Conclusions: Doxycycline can be replaced with omadacycline for clinical use. This result warrants future clinical investigations on omadacycline for periodontal therapy in both local and systemic administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]