Binding of Porphyromonas gingivalis fimbriae to proline-rich glycoproteins in parotid saliva via a domain shared by major salivary components.

Porphyromonas gingivalis, a putative periodontopathogen, can bind to human saliva through its fimbriae. We previously found that salivary components from the submandibular and sublingual glands bind to P. gingivalis fimbriae and that acidic proline-rich protein (PRP) and statherin function as receptor molecules for fimbriae. In this study, we investigated the fimbria-binding components in parotid saliva. Fractionated human parotid saliva by gel-filtration chromatography was immobilized onto nitrocellulose membranes for the overlay assay following sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The salivary components on the membrane were allowed to interact with fimbriae purified from P. gingivalis ATCC 33277, and the interacted fimbriae were probed with anti-fimbria antibodies. The fimbriae were shown to bind to two forms of proline-rich glycoproteins (PRGs) as well as to acidic PRPs and statherin. Moreover, fimbriae bound to several components of smaller molecular size which appeared to be acidic PRP variants and basic PRPs. Fimbriae bound strongly to the purified PRGs adsorbed onto hydroxyapatite (HAP) beads. In contrast, PRGs in solution failed to inhibit the fimbrial binding to the immobilized PRGs on the HAP beads. These findings suggest that the appearance of binding site(s) of PRGs can be ascribed to their conformational changes. We previously identified the distinct segments within PRP and statherin molecules that are involved in fimbrial binding. The peptides analogous to the binding regions of PRP and statherin (i.e., PRP-C and STN-C) markedly inhibit the binding of fimbriae to PRP and statherin immobilized on the HAP beads, respectively. The PRP-C significantly inhibited the binding of fimbriae to PRG-coated HAP beads as well as to PRP on HAP beads. The peptide did not affect the binding of fimbriae to statherin, whereas the STN-C showed no effect on the fimbrial binding to PRPs or PRGs. In the overlay assay, the PRP-C clearly diminished the interactions between the fimbriae and the various salivary components, including PRPs, the PRGs, and the components with smaller molecular sizes but not statherin. These results strongly suggest that fimbriae bind to salivary components (except statherin) via common peptide segments. It is also suggested that fimbriae bind to saliva through the two distinct binding domains of receptory salivary components: (i) PRGs and PRPs and (ii) statherin.