Polymorphic Variants of Peptidylarginine Deiminase Gene from P. gingivalis—Searching for Targets for Supportive Therapy of Periodontitis

Periodontitis (PD), an oral inflammatory disease, is primarily caused by <i>P. gingivalis</i>. Peptidylarginine deiminase (PPAD) is considered an attractive virulence factor because, due to protein citrullination, it may have deleterious effects on host tissues. In this study, the <i>ppad</i> gene sequences from <i>P. gingivalis</i> were analyzed in the context of its impact on bacterial virulence and potential targets for PD therapy. Analyses of <i>ppad</i> sequences from 58 patients with various clinical stages of PD, 20 controls, and 60 sequences from public databases were conducted. Overall, 55 substitutions assigned as polymorphic variants (4), missense mutations (10), or synonymous variants (35) were identified in PD, and 22 synonymous variants were identified in controls. Among them, the G231N, E232T, N235D variant was found in ~25% of <i>P. gingivalis</i> strains from PD samples. It was located close to the catalytic triad and had two-fold higher activity in comparison with reference <i>P. gingivalis,</i> upregulated expression of key inflammatory mediators, and contributed to worsening periodontium conditions in advanced PD, suggesting their unambiguous impact on <i>P. gingivalis</i> virulence. Our results indicate the G231N, E232T, N235D variant of the <i>ppad</i> gene as a potential candidate, opening a path to searching for novel targets for supportive therapy of PD. Further validation of the identified mutations is needed in future studies.