Salivary Diagnostics in Oral Diseases

Abstract

Common oral diseases like dental caries, periodontal diseases and oral cancer have major impact on quality of life. For prevention, treatment and prognosis, it is essential to measure the disease objectively and accurately in a quantitative manner. Quantification of biochemical or molecular specific products of cancers in serum or localized body juices can be one of the current methods of measuring oral diseases objectively. Salivary diagnostics has influenced several researchers and has been verified as an important tool in the diagnosis of many systemic conditions and prognosis of the disease. Developments in the field of molecular biology, salivary genomics and proteomics have directed to the detection of novel molecular markers for oral disease diagnosis, therapeutics and prognosis.

Oral Neutrophils: Underestimated Players in Oral Cancer

“…The most abundant proteins in saliva are plasma albumin, digestive enzymes and microbicidal proteins, but also variety of hormones, cytokines and chemokines, as well as other molecules with regulatory functions ( 33 ). Besides this, saliva contains components with still unknown biological functions ( 37 ) that are secreted by exocytosis of the granules of acinar cells in the salivary glands ( 38 ). Moreover, saliva contains high amounts of extracellular vesicles, mainly secreted by epithelial cells and salivary glands ( 39 ), but also originating from the circulation.…”

“…Salivary levels of IL-6 ( 118 , 119 ) may serve as oral cancer predictors ( 123 ). Higher levels of growth factors in saliva also correlate with oral inflammation and tumor invasion ( 37 ). Importantly, the upregulation of all these factors has a significant role in the activation of neutrophils.…”

“…In contrast, analysis of saliva could offer an alternative route for the evaluation of tumor-induced changes of neutrophil activity, especially in HNC situation. Salivary diagnostics is a non-invasive procedure that offers easier applicability, lower cost and less sensitivity to technical variations than blood draws or tissue analysis ( 37 ). Saliva reflects local changes in the oral cavity with higher accuracy than systemic parameters ( 18 ), therefore oPMN could have higher prognostic value than cPMN in HNC progression.…”

Artificial intelligence in salivary biomarker discovery and validation for oral diseases

“…Common oral and maxillofacial diseases in which salivary biomarkers have been utilized for related outcomes include periodontal diseases, dental caries, oral cancer, temporomandibular joint dysfunction, and salivary gland disease (Bhat & Bhat, 2019; Gursoy & Könönen, 2016; Javaid et al, 2016; Zhang et al, 2016). In the last three decades, various biological molecules such as genome, epigenome, proteome, transcriptome, metabolome, microbiome, metagenome, and metatranscriptome deregulation signatures associated with these oral diseases have been isolated in saliva using high throughput and advanced molecular biology techniques (Adeoye, Brennan, & Thomson, 2020).…”

Saliva as a Diagnostic Tool in Oral Diseases

“…The most important step for the treatment is to make an accurate diagnosis. When the clinical, radiological, and histological features of the disease are known, it will be easier to eliminate the disease factors (11). Caries, periodontal diseases, and oral malignant lesions are some of the examples of oral diseases that can be diagnosed with saliva tests (12).…”