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22/11/2009
Saliva can be used to detect diseases
Human saliva shows evidence that enables the detection of various diseases, such as breast cancer, diabetes or autoimmune diseases, according to new results presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Science Advancement in 2006. Saliva tests may become a new non-invasive form to quickly diagnose those diseases, state the researchers. To produce saliva, glands use a soluble blood component, called serum, as raw material. For years, physicians have waited for the appearance of saliva-based tests to replace blood tests.
In 2005, oral biologist David Wong, from the University of California (UCLA), reported advancement in saliva tests, showing that the levels of four of the 3 thousand messenger-RNA molecules typically found in human saliva were consistently high in patients with oral cancer, but not in healthy individuals. Recently, the UCLA team reported 94% accuracy in the attempt to diagnose oral cancer in 320 patients by using such molecules as indexes.
But oral cancer is only the beginning. Wong says that his team has also examined saliva from groups of 10 individuals with type-2 diabetes, breast cancer and Sjögren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that mostly affects women and destroys the salivary glands and the pancreas. By comparing saliva from sick individuals with that of healthy persons, researchers found alterations in various RNA molecules. The researchers have also developed a prototype that uses nanotechnology to test the presence of specific RNA molecules in small samples of saliva."
Related website: www.jornaldosite.com.br/materias/pesquisa&tecnologia/anteriores/edicao146/pesquisa14601.htm |
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