Abstract
Saliva is a non-invasive biofluid, which is easy to collect, transport, and store. Because of its accessibility and connection to systemic diseases, saliva is one of the best candidates for the advancement of point-of-care medicine, where individuals are able to easily monitor their health status by using portable convenient tools such as smartphones. There are a variety of scenarios with which saliva can be used: studies have been conducted on using saliva to measure stress hormones, enzyme levels, developmental disease biomarkers, and even cancer mutations. If validated biomarkers were combined with high-quality detection tools, saliva would open up a new frontier in high-quality healthcare, allowing physicians and patients to work together for real-time health monitoring and high-impact personalized preventative medicine. One of the most exciting emerging frontiers of saliva is liquid biopsy, which is a non-invasive means to assess the presence and characteristics of cancer in a patient. This article will review current basic knowledge of biomarkers, review their relation to different diseases and conditions, and explore liquid biopsy for point-of-care applications.
Highlights
In the era of new diagnostic methods and treatment options, patient care is rapidly changing
We present current knowledge and future aspects of utilizing saliva as a reliable biofluid for disease-specific biomarker development, describe some existing methods that have been advocated for being useful for the point-of-care context (Figure 1), with an extended exploration of the electric field-induced release and measurement (EFIRM) method
EFIRM’s feasibility and robustness as a method would be best confirmed by a definitive trial using both EFIRM and a gold standard method in parallel. This brief overview of the current knowledge of salivary biomarkers and their future role in point-of-care applications demonstrates the need for more advanced technologies
Summary
In the era of new diagnostic methods and treatment options, patient care is rapidly changing. The paradigm of point-of-care diagnostics joined to precision medicine and early detection paint a compelling vision of the future: one where doctors and patients can use small and portable devices to rapidly assess a patient’s health status, catching diseases extremely early and allowing ultracustomized treatment based on a patient’s personal characteristics. The patient can provide the sample independently, even at one’s home without any extensive equipment and handling In this targeted review, we present current knowledge and future aspects of utilizing saliva as a reliable biofluid for disease-specific biomarker development, describe some existing methods that have been advocated for being useful for the point-of-care context (Figure 1), with an extended exploration of the electric field-induced release and measurement (EFIRM) method
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