Newsletter
LOS ANGELES, Calif., USA: According to scientists from the U.S., salivary fluid has become an emerging medium for the detection of oral and systemic diseases, as well as for health surveillance in recent years. They are currently researching the mechanisms underpinning salivary diagnostics for the development of noninvasive clinical applications, especially in cancer detection.
In his article published recently in a supplement to the October issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association, Dr. David Wong, professor of oral biology and medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Dentistry, highlighted the advances made by the institute in the field of salivaomics, the study of the complex sets of molecules in saliva.
Through various studies and tests during the last few years, the scientists found that saliva is as useful as blood and other bodily fluids for health screening. They developed a number of informatics and statistical tools to help interpret biomarkers in saliva for early detection of disease, treatment monitoring, prognosis, etc.
According to a study published online on Mar. 20 in the PLOS One journal, exosomes, vesicles that are released by tumor cells, can shuttle tumor-specific information to different parts of the body, including the salivary glands, leading to the appearance of disease-discriminatory markers in saliva.
Yet another study conducted last year at the university's Department of Medicine, demonstrated that variations in the oral microbiota are associated with pancreatic cancer and can be used as indicators for the detection of the disease at an early stage.
To date, however, no salivary test exists for diagnosing oral or systemic diseases. An oral HIV test recently approved by the FDA claims only to screen for the presence of antibodies to the virus in saliva but a confirmatory test is still needed to diagnose HIV infection.
Wong hopes that further research in salivaomics will yield practical medical applications for use in dentists' and doctors' offices. He thinks that salivary diagnostics will hold implications for dental professionals in particular, as 20 percent more Americans visit their dentist more regularly than they visit their physician. The implementation of salivary diagnostics in clinical practice could advance dentistry in primary health care, he said.
