Evaluation of possible biomarkers for caries risk in children 6 to 12 years of age

Abstract

Background: Electrolytes, proteins, and other salivary molecules play an important role in tooth integrity and can serve as biomarkers associated with caries. Objective: To determine the concentration of potential biomarkers in children without caries (CF) and children with caries (CA). Methods: Unstimulated saliva was collected, and the biomarkers quantified in duplicate, using commercial Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kits to determine IgA, fibronectin, cathelicidin LL-37, and statherin levels, as well as colorimetric tests to detect formate and phosphate. Results: Significantly higher concentrations of statherin was detected in the CF group (Median: 94,734.6; IQR: 92,934.6–95,113.7) compared to the CA2 group (90,875.0; IQR: 83,580.2–94,633.4) (p = 0.03). Slightly higher median IgA (48,250.0; IQR: 31,461.9–67,418.8) and LL-37 levels (56.1; IQR 43.6–116.2) and a lower concentration of formate were detected in the CF group (0.02; IQR 0.0034–0.15) compared to the group with caries (IgA: 37,776.42; IQR: 33,383.9–44,128.5; LL-37: 46.3; IQR: 40.1011–67.7; formate: 0.10; IQR: 0.01–0.18), but these differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The fact that these compounds have been identified as good markers for caries among European adults highlights the difficulty of identifying universal biomarkers that are applicable to all ages or to different populations.

Salivary Proteins as Dental Caries Biomarkers: A Systematic Review

“…Table 1 depicts the primary characteristics of the included 22 studies [Golpasand Hagh et al, 2013;Pal et al, 2013;Priya et al, 2013;Gabryel-Porowska et al, 2014;Gornowicz et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2015;Castro et al, 2016;Yassin, 2016;Jagadesh Babu et al, 2017;Picco et al, 2017;Sitaru et al, 2017;Haeri-Araghi et al, 2018;Monea et al, 2018;Pyati et al, 2018;Szkaradkiewicz-Karpinska et al, 2018;Nawaz et al, 2019;Soesilawati et al, 2019;Alani et al, 2020;Razi et al, 2020;Stojković et al, 2020;Angarita-Díaz et al, 2021;Khan et al, 2021]. Twelve studies were conducted in Asia [Golpasand Hagh et al, 2013;Pal et al, 2013;Priya et al, 2013;Yang et al, 2015;Yassin, 2016;Jagadesh Babu et al, 2017;Haeri-Araghi et al, 2018;Pyati et al, 2018;Nawaz et al, 2019;Soesilawati et al, 2019;Razi et al, 2020;Khan et al, 2021], followed by Europe (n = 6) [Gabryel-Porowska et al, 2014;Gornowicz et al, 2014;Sitaru et al, 2017;Monea et al, 2018;…”

“…The caries index used in all included studies was DMF (DMFT/DMFS), except for 5 studies that employed the ICDAS [Haeri-Araghi et al, 2018;Angarita-Díaz et al, 2021;Khan et al, 2021], CAMBRA [Al-ani et al, 2020], and visual detection method [Monea et al, 2018]. Six studies considered DMFT ≥ 5 as a high risk of caries [Golpasand Hagh et al, 2013;Yang et al, 2015;Yassin, 2016;Picco et al, 2017;Nawaz et al, 2019;Stojković et al, 2020], one study considered DMFT = 3-5 as high risk of caries [Sitaru et al, 2017], whereas four articles considered DMFT >10 as high risk of caries [Gabryel-Porowska et al, 2014;Gornowicz et al, 2014;Szkaradkiewicz-Karpinska et al, 2018;Razi et al, 2020].…”

“…A statistically significant increase in the salivary levels of α-amylase [Sitaru et al, 2017;Monea et al, 2018], APRP-1 [Szkaradkiewicz-Karpinska et al, 2018], HTN-5 [Gornowicz et al, 2014], lactoperoxidase [Gornowicz et al, 2014], and MUC1 [Gabryel-Porowska et al, 2014] was found in CA patients, while the salivary levels of CAVI [Picco et al, 2017], proteinase-3 [Yang et al, 2015], and statherin [Angarita-Díaz et al, 2021] were observed to be significantly increased in CF subjects. Whereas a statistically nonsignificant association was observed between the salivary levels of 7 proteins, including cathelicidin LL-37 [Stojković et al, 2020;Angarita-Díaz et al, 2021], fibronectin [Stojković et al, 2020], APRP-1 [Szkaradkiewicz-Karpinska et al, 2018], HNP-1 [Stojković et al, 2020], hBD-2 [Stojković et al, 2020], MUC5B [Gabryel-Porowska et al, 2014], and MUC7 [Gabryel-Porowska et al, 2014], among individuals with and without caries. Conflicting results were found regarding the salivary levels of Igs (IgA and IgG) and total proteins among CA and CF subjects.…”

“…Five of the included studies reported a statistically significant increase in the salivary levels of IgA in CA patients [Priya et al, 2013;Gornowicz et al, 2014;Haeri-Araghi et al, 2018;Nawaz et al, 2019;Khan et al, 2021], while seven studies reported a statistically significant increase of IgA in CF subjects [Golpasand Hagh et al, 2013;Pal et al, 2013;Castro et al, 2016;Yassin, 2016;Jagadesh Babu et al, 2017;Soesilawati et al, 2019;Razi et al, 2020]. However, two studies reported a nonsignificant association of IgA between CF and CA subjects [Al-ani et al, 2020;Angarita-Díaz et al, 2021]. Regarding total proteins level in saliva, two studies reported a statistically significant increase in CA patients [Pyati et al, 2018;Razi et al, 2020], while one study reported a statistically significant increase in CF subjects [Castro et al, 2016].…”

Growing Global Research Interest in Antimicrobial Peptides for Caries Management: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…Natural antimicrobial peptides can kill oral pathogens and modulate innate and acquired immunity [ 6 ]. The level of natural antimicrobial peptides in saliva and gingival crevicular fluid can indicate caries risk [ 7 ]. Antimicrobial peptides’ flexible and various structures make possible functional modifications of antimicrobial peptides to extend their potential applications.…”