TIP OF THE WEEK

 

                                                                    April 25, 2008

 

Did you know...?        

 

Saliva-based testing could replace blood testing to diagnose a wide array of conditions including cancer, heart disease and diabetes. 

 

Recent U.S. research suggests that human saliva could replace blood in future diagnostic testing procedures.    
The collaboration of researchers of five universities reported recently that it has cataloged all 1,116 unique proteins found in human saliva glands, approximately 20 percent of which are also found in blood.  Researchers hope the results will usher in a new wave of saliva-based testing to diagnose a wide array of conditions including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

 

It's important to have a comprehensive understanding of the saliva proteome to be able to diagnose disease using saliva.  The proteome is a complete map of proteins expressed by a genome, cell, tissue or organ.  Proteins carry out actions given by genes to regulate cellular processes.  By comparing saliva samples collected from 23 healthy men and women with recent protein maps of human blood and tears, researchers found a number of proteins related to the body’s response to a variety of diseases.  The research has shown that salivary proteins may represent new tools for tracking disease throughout the body.  These tools are potentially easier to monitor in saliva than in blood.

 

Saliva-based tests to detect HIV and hepatitis infections already exist.  Saliva can reveal use of alcohol and many drugs.  Saliva testing can currently be used to check for or monitor certain drugs, hormones, antibodies (substances in the body's blood or fluids that act against such foreign substances as bacteria), and other molecules present in the body.  With a saliva sample, diagnostic data for such diseases or conditions as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), measles, hepatitis (a liver disease caused by the hepatitis A virus), low fertility, menopause and others are available without having to draw a person's blood.   The new research may allow for the development of new ways to track other diseases in the body using saliva.  

 

Saliva sample testing is particularly beneficial because it is less invasive or noninvasive.  As a result, test results may be more accurate in that less stress on the system during the production of the specimen means less interference with the factors being tested. 

 

To read more about the recent research on saliva testing visit the Journal of Proteome Research. 

 

 

*Please feel free to forward this information to any member of management in your company who would benefit from it.*


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