Abstract

Diabetes is a chronic condition that often requires life-long treatment. Hyperglycemia resulting from lack of diagnosis or neglect of the condition can result in devastating consequences. Early diagnosis and close monitoring of the condition may be the key to combat this disease. Saliva may have a role in diagnosing and monitoring diabetes. Recent studies and patents suggest that there is a potential of using this fluid in conjunction with blood. While many patents claim to have an application for saliva samples, only a handful of proteomic studies and a few patents really define specific diabetes- associated proteins differentially expressed in saliva. These studies however were cross-sectional and had a relatively small sample size. A longitudinal cohort with larger subject population with various stages of diabetes correlating the salivary protein biomarkers to known clinical markers, e.g., plasma glucose, serum A1C, and clinical symptoms, will be required for future studies. Moreover, future studies are needed to define the biological link between salivary biomarkers and pathophysiology of diabetes. Some of the relevant patents are also summarized in this review.

Keywords: Biomarkers, diabetes, diagnosis, hyperglycemia, mass spectrometry, proteomics, saliva, salivary proteins, Diagnostic Fluid, non-invasive tool