Patent Abstract:
compositions for use in oral hygiene contain a lactobacillus helveticus strain . compositions further containing a lactobacillus plantarum strain , especially lactobacillus plantarum sd5870 , are particularly effective . the combination of lactobacillus helveticus lafti l10 and lactobacillus plantarum sd5870 synergistically improves oral hygiene . the compositions are particularly useful against dental caries .

Detailed Description:
throughout the specification reference is made to genus / species names and to strain designations . from time to time the classification of organisms changes and any given organism may be assigned a different name and / or strain designation . the probiotic organisms referred to herein have certain genomes that would remain the same whether or not the name and / or strain designation of the organisms changes . from the genome , one skilled in the art can readily determine whether any given organism , whatever name and / or strain designation it carries , is encompassed by the present description . plaque was collected using sterile probes and spread directly onto mitis salivarius - bacitracin s . mutans selective agar from 4 different subjects , and then incubated for 48 hours at 37 ° c . in microaerophilic conditions . individual colonies were then quadrant streaked onto bhye plates and then incubated again for 48 hours at 37 ° c . in microaerophilic conditions . subsequent genotyping was undertaken on the isolated colonies to confirm their species . bacterial dna extracted using instagene matrix ( biorad ) similar to manufacturer &# 39 ; s instructions . briefly , a single colony was picked and dispersed in 1 ml of sterile h 2 o . this mix was then centrifuged for 1 minute at 10 , 000 rpm and the supernatant discarded . to the pellet was added 200 μl of intagene matrix , the samples were vortexed quickly and incubated at 55 ° c . for 20 minutes in a water bath . samples were then removed and incubated in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes . the samples were then vortexed again and then centrifuged for 3 minutes at 10 , 000 rpm . supernatants were collected and stored at − 20 ° c . until used for pcr . all pcr reagents were obtained from invitrogen . samples of extracted dna were subjected to pcr in a reaction mixture containing 1 × pcr buffer , 15 mm mgcl 2 , 200 mm dntp mix , 10 μm mut - f primer , 10 μm mut - r primer , 5 u of taq dna polymerase , 10 μl of dna template , and ddh 2 o up to a final volume of 50 μl . the primers amplify a 517 - bp dna region coding the gtfb extracellular glucosyltransferase of s . mutans ( oho 2000 ). the thermocycling conditions were an initial denaturation at 95 ° c . for 1 minute , followed by 30 cycles of denaturation at 95 ° c . for 30 seconds , annealing at 59 ° c . for 30 seconds , and extension at 72 ° c . for 1 minute . a final extension step at 72 ° c . for 5 minutes was included . pcr products were then mixed with dna loading buffer and separated with a 1 . 5 % agarose gel with 0 . 05 % etbr at 100 v for 45 minutes , and imaged under uv light excitation . to test the antagonism of the probiotics against s . mutans , deferred antagonism was undertaken essentially as previously performed by tagg and bannister ( tagg 1979 ). liquid cultures were inoculated into mrs for either lactobacilli or bifidobacteria , and bhye for streptococci , and then incubated overnight at 37 ° c . in microaerophilic conditions . referring to fig1 , the overnight suspension was then swabbed onto a bhi or cb plate with 0 . 1 % ( w / v ) caco 3 in a measured 1 cm wide streak using sterile cotton swabs . bhi plates contained 18 . 5 g brain heart infusion ( bhi , difco ), 7 . 5 g agar ( fisher ) and 1 g caco 3 ( sigma ). cb plates contained 22 g columbia blood ( difco ), 7 . 5 g agar ( fisher ) and 1 g caco 3 ( sigma ). the plates were then incubated at 37 ° c . in microaerophilic conditions . after 48 hours the bacterial growth was scraped off with a glass microscope slide , and the plate re - sterilized with chloroform vapors for 20 minutes . overnight suspensions of the type strain s . mutans atcc25175 and 4 fresh isolates were then streaked across perpendicularly , and the plates were re - incubated . after 48 hours the zone of inhibition ( zoi ) was calculated as the distance between the two areas of bacterial growth , minus 1 cm where the probiotic was directly plated . statistics was performed using prism 4 ( graphpad ). one - way anovas were used to compare between specific probiotics and probiotic combinations . synergism was calculated as a synergistic quotient , which is the sum of the individual treatments divided by the combined treatment . a values & gt ; 1 indicate synergism of the combination ( wang 2012 ). to determine strains with probiotic potential in dental caries , an s . mutans antagonism screening was undertaken for many commercialized strains of probiotics . firstly , as described in example 1 , fresh isolates of the pathogen were obtained by plating plaque samples from 4 individuals onto s . mutans selective mitis salivarius - bacitracin agar plates . colonies were genotyped for the presence of an s . mutans specific marker sequence , which was compared against the type strain s . mutans atcc 25175 ( fig2 ). four isolates were selected ( 1 per subject ). deferred antagonism assays against these 4 isolates and s . mutans 25175 was undertaken on two media types to rapidly screen probiotic strains with any antagonism . table 1 indicates the presence or absence of a zone of inhibition ( zoi ) for any replicate , and for any of the 5 strains assayed in these experiments . strains streptococcus salivarius k 12 , streptococcus salivarius m18 , lactobacillus plantarum sd5870 , l . helveticus r0052 , and bifidobacteria longum sd5846 ( known commercially as bifidobacteria longum bl - 05 ) were observed to have antagonism on both agar types , while for lactobacillus helveticus lafti l10 antagonism was only apparent on bhi agar . bhi agar was therefore used in subsequent quantitative deferred antagonism experiments . to quantify the antagonism , the experiment was repeated for each probiotic bacteria in at least four and as many as eight separate experiments , and the zone of inhibition was specifically measured . equal mixtures of all probiotic bacterial strains in all possible combinations of 2 were assessed to test for potential synergistic effects . the zoi of five pathogenic strains was measured and averaged across four experiments . the results are indicated in fig3 to fig6 . in general , the culture collection strain of s . mutans proved to be much more resistant to antagonistic factors secreted by the probiotics compared to fresh isolates ( fig3 ). for example in single probiotic experiments , no antagonism was observed at all for the s . mutans 25175 , while for s . mutans 13 , all 6 probiotics except b . longum sd5846 were antagonistic . as a single strain l . helveticus lafti l10 and l . helveticus r0052 were able to antagonize all four freshly isolated s . mutans , while s . salivarius k12 , and l . plantarum sd5870 antagonized three of four . s . salivarius m18 antagonized two of the four pathogenic isolates , and b . longum sd5846 only one , and the average zoi for these were , in all cases , comparatively weaker than other probiotic strains . the average zoi were in many cases greater when two strains were combined together in equal amounts and certain bacteria appeared to combine better than others . for isolate s . mutans 15 for example ( fig6 ), of the 15 possible combinations of 2 strains , 7 were greater than the zoi of l . helveticus r0052 , the greatest inhibiting individual probiotic . of these 7 combinations , six contained either a l . helveticus lafti l10 or a l . plantarum sd5870 . this proved true across all pathogenic strains ; in each instance of inhibiting s . mutans isolates 13 , 14 , 15 , and 17 , or even s . mutans 25175 , the 4 largest zoi were always combinations containing either a l . helveticus lafti l10 or a l . plantarum sd5870 . fig7 indicates the average zone of inhibition ( zoi ) together with the calculated synergism of the antagonism . significant difference of the zoi as calculated by 1 - way anova for combinations compared to its component strains individually is indicated . the synergistic quotient ( sq ) indicates the relative synergism by dividing the zoi for combinations of probiotics by the sum of their component zoi measured individually . combinations with greater than 50 % synergism ( sq & gt ; 1 . 5 ) are indicated in bold . na indicates no antagonism , while us indicates undetermined synergism , as antagonism was only ever observed in combination . the combination of l . helveticus lafti l10 with b . longum sd5846 and the combination of l . plantarum sd5870 with l . helveticus r0052 were both significantly more antagonistic against strains of s . mutans than their individual components . the combination of l . helveticus lafti l10 with b . longum sd5846 was very synergistic with us , 1 . 8 , 3 . 7 , 2 . 4 , and 2 . 2 when tested against s . mutans strains 25175 , 13 , 14 , 15 , and 17 , respectively . l . plantarum sd5870 with l . helveticus r0052 was also synergistic , exhibiting an sq of na , 3 . 3 , 1 . 5 , 1 . 8 , and 1 . 6 , respectively . interestingly , however , component bacteria from each of these two synergistic combinations ( l . helveticus lafti l10 and l . plantarum sd5870 ) resulted in particularly strong activity , and synergism when combined together . the zoi for these 2 strains combined was the highest antagonism by a significant margin for all five strains of s . mutans . the zoi for l . helveticus lafti l10 and l . plantarum sd5870 was in fact higher than the zoi for the two strains individually added together for all strains of s . mutans , which proved highly significant by 1 - way anova . for s . mutans 25175 there was no inhibition at all by either probiotic strain individually , but very significant inhibition ( about 20 mm ) when the two strains were combined together . this is strongly suggestive of synergistic activity between the probiotics , and in fact the synergistic quotients were us , 3 . 4 , 3 . 9 , 4 . 2 and 4 . 2 for strains of s . mutans 25175 , 13 , 14 , 15 , and 17 , respectively . to test hydrogen peroxide production , a commonly used methodology was employed that is very similar to that recently used by kang et al ( kang 2011 ). essentially , standard agar growth media ( mrs for either lactobacilli or bifidobacteria , and bhye for streptococci ) was modified by the addition of 0 . 25 mg / ml 3 , 3 ′, 5 , 5 ′- tetramethylbenzidine ( tmb ) and 0 . 1 ng / ml peroxidase . briefly , 0 . 125 g of tmb and 5 mg of peroxidase was dissolved in 1 ml of dimethyl sulfoxide ( dmso ) and water respectively . these solutions were sterilized using 0 . 2 μm syringe filters and added to 0 . 5 l of liquid agar media immediately following post autoclave cooling to & lt ; 50 ° c . plates were then poured . individual colonies of probiotic were picked from a stock plate , and streaked directly onto tmb / peroxidase agar and standard agar control plates using an inoculation loop . plates were then left at 37 ° c . in microaerophilic conditions for 72 hours . the colonies and surrounding agar were assessed for any change in color to either blue or red every 24 hours by comparing to a normal mrs or bhye streaked control plate . the experiment was repeated three times . since many lactobacilli produce hydrogen peroxide as an antagonistic agent against surrounding bacteria , the hydrogen peroxide production of the strains was assayed . it was confirmed that 10 of the 11 lactobacillus strains tested produced some hydrogen peroxide . s . salivarius did not while the two s . thermophilus and all 5 of the bifidobacteria produced varying degrees of h 2 o 2 ( fig8 ). all strains that were observed to have s . mutans antagonism were all among the fastest to produce h 2 o 2 , having been observed to do so within 24 hours of plating , with the exception of s . thermophilus . cell culture reagents were obtained from gibco unless otherwise stated . the immortalized human bronchial epithelial cell line 16hbe14o - was grown in mem media supplemented with 10 % fbs and 2 mm l - glutamine , and maintained using standard cell culture procedures at 37 ° c . and 5 % co 2 . cells were seeded in wells of a tissue - culture treated 24 - well plate at a concentration of 1 × 10 5 cells / well and allowed to grow to confluency ( about 48 hours , approximately 5 × 10 5 cells / well ). cell media was then aspirated and replaced with 500 μl of fresh media containing 100 - fold dilutions of the various stationary phase bacterial cell suspensions , which were grown overnight in mrs ( lactobacilli and bifidobacteria ) or bhye ( streptococci ). plates were then incubated at 37 ° c . and 5 % co 2 . after 5 hours , the culture media was aspirated and the monolayers washed thoroughly three times with pbs to remove non - loosely adherent bacteria . eukaryotic cells were then disrupted by adding triton ™ x - 100 to a final concentration of 0 . 1 %. enumeration of the remaining adherent cfus contained in the lysis suspension was then undertaken by drop plate method . serial dilutions up to 10 − 6 were made in a 96 well plate in 10 - fold steps , with 10 μl of the various dilutions then spotted in triplicate onto appropriate agar ( mrs for lactobacilli and bifidobacteria , and bhye for streptococci ). the agar plates were incubated at 37 ° c . in microaerophilic conditions for 24 hours , after which cfus were enumerated . adhesion was reported as total cfus divided by the number of bronchial cells in the well as determined by cell counts of a bacteria - free control well of 16hbe14o - cells . to deliver its effects , the bacteria would have to co - localize with the s . mutans within the oral cavity . to test the potential of the probiotic bacteria to stay within the oral cavity , binding affinity assays were performed ( fig9 ). the assay tested adherence of the bacteria to a monolayer of 16hbe14o - human bronchial epithelial cells , which share a cell linage with oral epithelial cells and resemble them in phenotype . bacteria were seeded into mem media and allowed to grow for 5 hours before the free bacteria were washed away , and cfu counts made of the remaining disrupted eukaryotic and bacterial cell mixture . it was found that in general , the s . mutans pathogens did not adhere well to the cells , and nor did the lactobacilli tested ( fig9 ). the s . salivarius , which were originally isolated from the human throat , however adhered very tightly by comparison . the various probiotic bacteria or s . mutans were inoculated into 1 ml of liquid mrs for either lactobacilli or bifidobacteria , or bhye for streptococci , and then incubated overnight at 37 ° c . in microaerophilic conditions . the tubes were then centrifuged at 2000 rpm for 5 min and the supernatant aspirated , and then re - suspended in 1 ml pbs . this step was repeated 3 times . the suspended cells were then serially diluted in 100 μl pbs up to 128 - fold in 2 - fold serial dilution steps in a 96 well plate . the absorbance was read from the plate at 600 nm using an eon microplate reader ( biotek ). from the resultant data absorbance versus dilution curves were created , and the dilution for an absorbance of 0 . 3 was extrapolated for each bacterium tested . triplicate wells containing 200 μl of suspended bacteria were diluted directly in a 96 well plate according to the extrapolation . for each bacterium 100 μl of the same dilution was also added together with 100 μl of diluted s . mutans . the mixtures were uniformly dispersed by pipetting the wells up and down with a multichannel pipette . the plate was then sealed with a sterile clear plastic film , and then immediately incubated in the microplate reader at 37 ° c . along with a pbs blank . the wells were read at 600 nm after 6 hours . the potential of the strains to adhere and interact directly with the s . mutans through an aggregation assay was also assessed ( fig1 ). individual strains , and also equal part mixtures with s . mutans were assayed for absorbance changes at 600 nm when incubated at 37 ° c . an elevated absorbance indicates faster settling as a result of aggregation , when compared to either strain individually . the experiment shows that s . mutans does not auto - aggregate without a biofilm . however the addition of either strain of l . helveticus ( lafti l10 or r0052 ) led to a significantly increased absorbance compared to either bacterium alone . it has been here demonstrated that unique properties of particular strains of bacteria have the potential to modify the oral micro - floral environment for the amelioration of oral health and the reduction in dental caries causing s . mutans . this conclusion is underpinned by the specific finding that strains of the species l . helveticus ( lafti l10 and r0052 ) inhibit pathogens s . mutans better than all strains tested including s . salivarius m18 and l . rhamnosus gg , which are well established strains in the treatment of dental caries . secondly , there is substantial and significant synergism between the strains l . plantarum sd5870 and l . helveticus lafti l10 in their combined ability to inhibit five strains of freshly isolated s . mutans as well as a s . mutans strain that is very pathogenic . the co - aggregation of and l . helveticus lafti l10 with s . mutans in vitro further underscores its strong potential to localize and deliver its effects in the oral cavity . finally , the probiotic combination was shown to have synergistic s . mutans - reducing potential when combined together in an in vitro model of dental caries . this finding is unexpected since we had previously observed that the combination of two or more different probiotics normally resulted in poorer inhibition than any one of the probiotics alone . combinations may generally lead to poorer inhibition because the different probiotics in the combination may compete with each other as well as inhibit each other . even maintaining inhibition at the same level as compared to a single probiotic is unexpected , let alone finding synergy between combinations of probiotics . several bacterial strains have reliably been demonstrated to affect dental caries pathogens through various mechanisms . notably , s . salivarius m18 was shown both in in vitro and in clinical studies to have an anti - s . mutans activity . there was also considerable clinical research interest demonstrating the probiotic lactobacillus rhamnosus gg to have anti - dental caries effects in short term and long term studies . in the present invention it was demonstrated that several strains of probiotic bacteria exceeded these probiotics in their s . mutans antagonism . while no antagonism of the s . mutans strains was observed using l . rhamnosus gg , considerable antagonism was observed using s . salivarius m18 . it is notable however that several strains of probiotic tested including l . plantarum sd5870 , and b . longum sd5846 , and the related strain s . salivarius k12 , were all observed to have greater antagonism than s . salivarius m18 for at least one strain of s . mutans , while the two l . helveticus strains studied ( lafti l10 and r0052 ) had in fact greater or equal antagonism for all strains tested . of greatest interest is that when the strain l . helveticus lafti l10 was combined with l . plantarum sd5870 , strong anti - s . mutans synergism was observed for all five pathogens tested . the observed antagonism was stronger for this combination than for any other individual probiotic strain or combination tested , and was at least three times more effective at antagonizing than the two individual probiotics added together , for all five of the s . mutans strains . although it is unknown what metabolic mechanisms underlay the synergism , it is known that some strains of l . helveticus secrete bacteriocins like helveticin j , and helveticin v - 1829 , and likewise strains of l . plantarum have a variety of bacteriocins and other antimicrobial substances coded at the pln locus , whose secretion is regulated through a quorum mechanism . though it is unknown whether l . plantarum sd5870 expresses any antimicrobial factors , their expression though variable is thought to be relatively common among l . plantarum strains . antimicrobial peptides that antagonize s . mutans may be particularly effective in combinations of complementary lethality when secreted by the two probiotics . it is interesting that the 4 non - streptococci strains that had s . mutans antagonism were all among the strongest h 2 o 2 producers . while s . salivarius k12 and m18 may exert anti - s . mutans activity through secretion of specific bacteriocins , it appears likely that l . plantarum sd5870 and lactobacillus helveticus lafti l10 do so at least partially through the secretion of h 2 o 2 . s . mutans is reported as being able to both produce and degrade hydrogen peroxide , but is nevertheless also readily susceptible to it , presumably at threshold concentrations . levels of hydrogen peroxide localized around s . mutans in vivo , may be further increased by the direct aggregation that was observed of l . helveticus lafti l10 with s . mutans , and thereby act as an additional factor by which a high degree of antagonism is achieved . the findings here support the conclusion that l . helveticus has significant antagonism against s . mutans , and further that the specific combination of l . helveticus lafti l10 and l . plantarum sd5870 act synergistically to antagonize and inhibit the growth of s . mutans in an in vitro model of oral health . these findings have significant implications for microbiological - based treatment strategies of dental caries . in - vivo effects may be determined as follows . a randomized , double blinded , placebo controlled clinical trial is conducted with 30 - 40 subjects per group . subjects are treated with equal doses of a minimum of 1 billion cfu l . helveticus lafti 110 and l . plantarum sd5870 twice daily in a probiotic lozenge following brushing for a period of 28 - 30 days . a decrease in the detection of precarious demineralised surface area of & gt ; 20 % may be expected as determined using highly sensitive frequency - domain infrared photothermal radiometry and modulated luminescence . a decrease in s . mutans and plaque levels is also expected . it is anticipated that the addition of casein phosphate peptide - amorphous calcium phosphate ( cpp - acp ) or other remineralization agent will demonstrate significant in vivo effects as follows . a randomized , double blinded , placebo controlled clinical trial is conducted with 30 - 40 subjects per group . the study would comprise 4 arms as follows : a first treatment group where subjects are treated with equal doses of a minimum of 1 billion cfu l . helveticus lafti 110 and l plantarum sd5870 ; a second treatment group where subjects are treated with a combination of 1 billion cfu l . helveticus lafti i10 and l plantarum sd5870 and an effective dose of cpp - acp or other remineralization agent ; a third treatment group where subjects are treated with an effective dose of cpp - acp or other remineralization agent ; and a fourth treatment group where subjects are treated with a placebo control . the study would continue with twice daily doses in probiotic lozenges following brushing for a period of 28 - 30 days . a decrease in the detection of precarious demineralised surface area of & gt ; 20 % may be expected as determined using highly sensitive frequency - domain infrared photothermal radiometry and modulated luminescence . a decrease in s . mutans and plaque levels is also expected . sealed packages of the lozenges are stored at room temperature ( 20 - 25 ° c .) at an ambient humidity of 60 - 65 %. bacteria are cultured from the lozenges at defined time points according to an industry standard selective spread plate method . thus , lozenges are dissolved in phosphate buffered saline ( pbs ), serially diluted , and plated onto selective agar for s . salivarius ( cabk12 ) and lactobacilli ( rogosa ) agar plates in triplicate . cfu counts are made following 48 hour incubation at 37 ° c . in microaerophilic conditions . even after 27 months , there are still substantial live probiotic strains with at least about 4 × 10 8 cfu / lozenge . there are substantial and adequate numbers of live bacteria to deliver probiotics health benefits . commercially available probiotic products were tested with the deferred antagonism assay described above . table 3 provides the probiotic bacterial composition for each product . in brief , one lozenge of each product was dissolved in 5 ml of 1 × pbs by shaking for 2 h at 37 ° c . in sterile conditions . then , with the help of a cotton swab , the dissolution was spread within a 1 cm wide streak across the diameter of bhi and bhi supplemented with caco 3 agar plates . these plates were incubated for 48 h at 37 ° c . in microaerophilic conditions , then the grown bacteria were removed and the agar was sterilized . after , 5 different strains of s . mutans ( atcc strain and integra &# 39 ; s isolates 13 , 14 , 15 and 17 ) were swabbed across the plates , perpendicularly to the probiotic streak and left to grow for another 48 h . this procedure was repeated twice , each of them using triplicates for each condition . unlike compositions of the present invention , no growth inhibition was observed for any of the six replicates of each condition for any of the commercially available probiotic products tested . it should also be noted that the probiotic bacterial count of about 4 × 10 8 cfu / lozenge after 27 months of storage of a lozenge of the present invention as described in example 8 compares very favorably with the prior art products that were tested , and is considerably better than over half of the prior art products tested . the contents of the entirety of each of which are incorporated by this reference . burton j p , et al . ( 2013 ) the influence of the probiotic streptococcus salivarius m18 on indices of dental health in children : a randomised double - blind placebo - controlled trial . journal of medical microbiology . doi : 10 . 1099 / jmm . 0 . 056663 - 0 . caglar e , kargul b , tanboga i . ( 2005a ) bacteriotherapy and probiotics &# 39 ; role on oral health . oral diseases . 11 , 131 - 7 . caglar e , et al . ( 2005b ) effect of yogurt with bifidobacterium dn - 173 010 on salivary mutans streptococci and lactobacilli in young adults . acta odontologica scandinavica . 63 , 317 - 20 . caglar e , cildir s k , ergeneli s , sandalli n , twetman s . ( 2006 ) salivary mutans streptococci and lactobacilli levels after ingestion of the probiotic bacterium lactobacillus reuteri atcc 55730 by straws or tablets . acta odontologica scandinavica . 64 , 314 - 8 . caglar e , et al . 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( 2000 ) simple and rapid detection of streptococcus mutans and streptococcus sobrinus in human saliva by polymerase chain reaction . oral microbiology and immunology . 15 , 258 - 62 . saha s , tomaro - duchesneau c , tabrizian m , prakash s . ( 2012 ) probiotics as oral health biotherapeutics . expert opinion on biological therapy . 12 , 1207 - 20 . stecksén - blicks c , sjöstrom i , twetman s . ( 2009 ) effect of long - term consumption of milk supplemented with probiotic lactobacilli and fluoride on dental caries and general health in preschool children : a cluster - randomized study . caries research . 43 , 374 - 81 . tagg j r , bannister l v . ( 1979 ) “ fingerprinting ” beta - haemolytic streptococci by their production of and sensitivity to bacteriocine - like inhibitors . journal of medical microbiology . 12 , 397 - 411 . tagg j r , dierksen k p . ( 2003 ) bacterial replacement therapy : adapting “ germ warfare ” to infection prevention . trends in biotechnology . 21 , 217 - 23 . taipale t , pienihäkkinen k , salminen s , jokela j , söderling e . ( 2012 ) bifidobacterium animalis subsp . lactis bb - 12 administration in early childhood : a randomized clinical trial of effects on oral colonization by mutans streptococci and the probiotic . caries research . 46 , 69 - 77 . wang j . et al . ( 2012 ) synergistic effects of nanosecond pulsed electric fields combined with low concentration of gemcitabine on human oral squamous cell carcinoma in vitro . plos one . 7 , e43213 . the novel features of the present invention will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon examination of the detailed description of the invention . it should be understood , however , that the scope of the claims should not be limited by the preferred embodiments set forth in the examples , but should be given the broadest interpretation consistent with the specification as a whole .