Advances in Microbiology, 2014, 4, 925-933 Published Online October 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/aim http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aim.2014.413103 How to cite this paper: da Silva, D.R., da Silva, A.C.B., Filho, R.M., Verli, F.D. and Marinho, S.A. (2014) Vaccine against Den- tal Caries: An Update. Advances in Microbiology, 4, 925-933. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aim.2014.413103 Vaccine against Dental Caries: An Update Diego Romário da Silva 1 , Andréa Cristina Barbosa da Silva 1* , Robeci Macedo Filho 1 , Flaviana Dornela Verli 2 , Sandra Aparecida Marinho 1 1 Graduate Program in Dentistry, Center of Sciences, Technology and Health, State University of Paraiba, UEPB, Araruna, Paraíba, Brazil 2 Department of Biological Sciences, Federal University of the Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valleys, UFVJM, Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil Email: * andreacbsilva@gmail.com Received 14 August 2014; revised 12 September 2014; accepted 8 October 2014 Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Abstract Dental caries, the disease that causes tooth decay, is infectious, and the mutans streptococci bac- teria have long been identified as the primary disease-causing agents. Caries vaccines showed promising results in experimental studies; however, it remains far the effective use in humans due to political-economic and ethical issues. Progress towards practical vaccine development requires evaluation of candidate vaccines in clinical trials. Promising strategies of passive immunization also require further clinical evaluation. The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature on the main research projects aimed at developing caries vaccines. Keywords Caries, Vaccine, Immunology 1. Introduction Dental caries is a multifactorial infectious disease, dependant on diet, oral microbiota and host response, and re- sulting on the demineralization located in the hard dental tissues [1]. Streptococcus mutans, a Gram positive, aciduric and acidogenic bacteria, is considered a microorganism more associated to this pathology [2]. Dental biofilm, in which S. mutans is inserted, is a community of bacteria attached to salivary components and embed- ded in a matrix of glucan of high molecular weight, produced by this microorganism [3]. Advances in molecular biology have facilitated the cloning and the functional characterization of virulence factors of mutans streptococci. The glucan polymer matrix produced by this microorganism, as well as the anti- gens (Ags) of virulence found on its surface, is considered mainly responsible for their biofilm-forming ability * Corresponding author.