Abstract
Saliva is a useful biological fluid and a valuable source of biological information. Saliva contains many of the same components that can be found in blood or serum, but the components of interest tend to be at a lower concentration in saliva, and their analysis demands more sensitive techniques. Metabolomics is starting to emerge as a viable method for assessing the salivary metabolites which are generated by the biochemical processes in elucidating the pathways underlying different oral and systemic diseases. In oral diseases, salivary metabolomics has concentrated on periodontitis and oral cancer. Salivary metabolites of systemic diseases have been investigated mostly in the early diagnosis of different cancer, but also neurodegenerative diseases. This mini-review article aims to highlight the challenges and possibilities of salivary metabolomics from a clinical viewpoint. Furthermore, applications of the salivary metabolic profile in diagnosis and prognosis, monitoring the treatment success, and planning of personalized treatment of oral and systemic diseases are discussed.
Highlights
Salivary metabolomics is a rapidly evolving discipline aiming to obtain new biological information about both body health and different oral diseases
Saliva is secreted from three paired major salivary glands and numerous minor salivary glands, which are located throughout the oral cavity
The clinical interest in salivary metabolomics has been growing because saliva is easy to obtain using non-invasive methods and can be collected several times a day
Summary
Salivary metabolomics is a rapidly evolving discipline aiming to obtain new biological information about both body health and different oral diseases. One of the “omics” techniques, opens a “new world” to understand many physiological and pathophysiological processes in this unique organ of the human body, the oral cavity. We have many challenges, because the oral cavity is a very complicated organ, and there are many factors that influence the salivary metabolic profile. This mini-review article aims to highlight challenges and possibilities of salivary metabolomics from a clinical viewpoint as well as to discuss applications of the salivary metabolic profile in diagnosis and prognosis, monitoring the treatment success, and planning personalized treatment of oral and systemic diseases
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