Abstract
Simple SummaryBurning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a chronic oral condition characterized by an intraoral burning sensation, taste alterations, and dry mouth sensations. The disease affects 0.7–15% of the general population, being most common in post-menopausal women. Although BMS is related to anxiety and/or depression and sleep disturbances, its etiology as well as its diagnosis remain unclear. Therefore, the present study aimed to contribute to the knowledge about this syndrome and to look for objective diagnostic tools. Therefore, whole saliva proteomes of patients suffering from BMS were compared to those of healthy persons. The results of this study manifest alterations in salivary proteins related to stress, immune system, and inflammation and, therefore, suggest implication of these pathways in BMS development. Moreover, biomarkers related to stress, immune system, and inflammation, such as salivary amyloid A, immunoglobulins, or leukocyte elastase inhibitors, among others, could contribute to BMC management, although further research is needed to confirm these suppositions.Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a chronic oral condition characterized by an intraoral burning sensation, taste alterations, and dry mouth sensations. Although a number of factors have been closely related to the appearance of the symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances, the etiology of BMS remains unclear. Furthermore, currently no objective diagnostic tools exist, making its diagnosis challenging. Therefore, to contribute to the knowledge about BMS etiology and look for objective tools for its diagnosis, the present study was conducted. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyze the proteomic profile of the resting whole saliva of patients with BMS and age and sex-matched controls using two-dimensional electrophoresis. The results showed evidence of changes in saliva at the level of proteins related to important pathways such as stress (sAA), immune system (Ig), and inflammation (leukocyte elastase inhibitor). While some of our findings have been previously described others, such as the deregulation of the coiled-coin domain containing protein 25 in BMS, are presented here for the first time to our knowledge. Thus, saliva provides us with relevant information about BMS pathophysiology and could be considered a suitable biofluid for its study and/or diagnosis.
Highlights
The Third Edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders (2018) has defined burning mouth syndrome (BMS) as an “intraoral burning sensation or dysesthesia manifesting daily for more than two hours during a period of over three months, with no clinically manifest causal lesions” [1]
No statistically significant differences were detected between patients with burning mouth syndrome and the controls in terms of salivary total protein concentration and salivary flow rate (BMS patients, 3.7 ± 1.6 mL vs. controls, 2.3 ± 1.6 mL; p = 0.132)
Partial Least Square—Discriminant Analysis revealed that groups of healthy individuals can be distinguished from BMS patients (Figure 2)
Summary
The Third Edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders (2018) has defined burning mouth syndrome (BMS) as an “intraoral burning sensation or dysesthesia manifesting daily for more than two hours during a period of over three months, with no clinically manifest causal lesions” [1]. The literature contemplates other terms describing this disorder, such as glossodynia or stomatopyrosis, referring mainly to a burning sensation of the oral mucosa and not to the global symptoms that conform the syndrome. The etiology of BMS is unclear, a number of factors have been closely related to the appearance of the symptoms, such as anxiety and/or depression, and sleep disturbances [3,4]. In approximately 3% of patients, burning symptoms spontaneously disappear five years after their appearance [9], making this disease even more difficult to understand and diagnose
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