Diagnosing Disease with Saliva

After checking for cavities, your dentist might soon use your saliva to diagnose diseases like cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Researchers have already nailed down one disease they can diagnose through saliva: primary Sjogren's Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that causes the white blood cells to attack your moisture-producing glands. It can involve multiple organs and effects about 4 million people, 90 percent of whom are women.

Scientists at the University of California-Los Angeles have identified a panel of salivary biomarkers that can distinguish pSS patients from healthy subjects. Using cutting-edge proteomics and genomics technologies, they searched globally for markers in saliva from SS patients and healthy people, and found that saliva, especially whole saliva (that is, the combined saliva in the mouth, vs. saliva from the individual salivary glands), is informative for detecting patients with pSS. In addition, the proteomic and genomic profile of these markers reflects the damage to glandular cells, activated anti-viral immune response, or programmed cell death known to be involved in SS pathogenesis. The value of these candidate biomarkers for SS diagnosis has been confirmed by independent technologies. The saliva proteomic and genomic biomarkers collectively will have a positive beneficial diagnostic value on the clinical detection of pSS in the near future.

Dental researchers have been working diligently to decode the "human salivary proteome." Who knew? It even has its own website. They’ve identified more than 1,500 proteins and 3,000 mRNA species in saliva.

Using the salivary proteome and transcriptome as diagnostic alphabetsto search for diagnostic signatures, the investigators have found fivesalivary proteins and four salivary RNA to be highly discriminatory fororal cancer (>90% clinical accuracy). They have also examined thesaliva from patients with the autoimmune disease Sjögren’s Syndrome,
and have found a small subset of the salivary proteome andtranscriptome to be highly discriminatory for this disease.

Scientists are reporting the results at the 85th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research.

Scientists Use Saliva's "Diagnostic Alphabet" to Diagnose Disease [press release]

Using Saliva to Diagnose Sjögren’s Syndrome [press release]