A simple saliva sample could identify non -controlled type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents, helping to predict and prevent complications associated with the disease, as discovered by an investigation by doctors from the University of Athens (Greece).
The study, published in the 'Frontiers in Physiology' magazine, has found that saliva proteins reflect high blood sugar levels and associated diseases in young patients with type 1 diabetes, long before the appearance of clinical symptoms.
"Blood extraction through the puncture causes discomfort and makes it difficult to perform the test by patients. Easy, simple, painless and non -invasive saliva collection is the most attractive diagnosis means when children are examined", explains the co -author of the study, Professor Heleni Vastardis, of the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Athens.
Saliva, as scientists remember, contains thousands of proteins produced by salivary glands and gums, with important functions such as healing, digestion and fight against diseases.Previous investigations show that the amounts of each of these proteins, collectively called salivary proteoming, differ between healthy people and people with diabetes.
Vastardis and their colleagues see "great potential" in this finding.This new study supposes the most complete characterization of the salivary proteom to date.Young saliva samples with type 1 diabetes were analyzed with satisfactory or poor blood sugar control and amazed healthy subjects, using a highly sensitive technique to identify and quantify more than 2,000 different proteins.
The study
The researchers found that the young type 1 diabetics with good blood sugar control had saliva protein profiles similar to non -diabetics.On the contrary, young people with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes showed a very different protein profile.The differences were in the proteins that are known to have a key role in inflammation, coagulation and function of blood vessels, processes that are affected by a high level of blood sugar and, therefore, underlyingThe main long -term complications of diabetes.
In addition, none of these young people had clinical signs of eyes, kidneys or nerves."In other words, the signs of diabetic pathology are already underway long before the manifestation of clinical complications," says Vastardis.
For the research team, this suggests that the salivary proteoming could be used to predict complications and help prevent them."Salivary diagnoses allow the evaluation of asymptomatic diabetic patients and the identification of patients with a high risk of probability of suffering diabetic complications," the study collects.
To demonstrate this principle, the group used its results to identify a possible new preventive treatment for young patients with poor diabetic control.When searching in a gene database, they found a drug candidate capable of reversing changes in the salivary proteom associated with high blood sugar levels.
"This concept of proof of concept demonstrates the power of salivary protein analysis in diabetes investigation, and soon in clinical practice," Vastardis considers.