Saliva as Diagnosis Tool

Researchers from five different universities have been working on a comprehensive proteome for saliva. Comparing a patient’s saliva content with the ‘normal’ content complied from the proteome could be used to diagnose diseases. Certain proteins which are involved in signaling pathways in response to diseases could be present in the saliva, and finding them during a test could indicate having the disease. Presently saliva-based antibody tests are used to detect human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis infections. By making a more complete protein map, more diseases could potentially be tested for in this manner. One group is pursuing the idea looking for the protein HER2, which could be an indicator of breast cancer. If successful the research group believes that a saliva spit-test could replace mammograms. Researchers presently have leads in the signaling protein markers for Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases, as well as breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer and diabetes.

This idea is intriguing because it would be easier to collect saliva samples than even blood or urine samples. If a child, who typically dislike shots and having blood drawn, needs to undergo diagnosis tests this would offer at least a preliminary alternative. Even if the test is not definitive, it might be possible to run a painless saliva test in the future to narrow the source of the problem to a few possibilities. These tests would probably be cheaper and as the article states could potentially be performed at home. It will be interesting to see how many diseases or conditions for which they can find protein markers or signal pathway protein.
“Testing for disease could be easy as spit.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23792553/