Du Xin-Mei, Liang Xiao-Yue, Zhou Xue-Dong
State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases, Department of Cariology and Endodontics, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China.
Sichuan Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban. 2023 Jan;54(1):33-38. doi: 10.12182/20230160104.
Saliva, an important biological fluid secreted by oral glands, serves multiple functions. It performs cleaning and protective functions for oral tissues, safeguarding against biological, mechanical and chemical stimuli, while allowing for the sensory perception of taste and temperature. It is also responsible for the preliminary digestion of food. These functions and properties of saliva are attributed to the presence of electrolytes, buffers, proteins, glycoproteins, and lipids in saliva. Recent studies have found that saliva contains biomarkers that are closely connected with the pathophysiological status of the human body, suggesting that saliva makes an ideal biological fluid for drug monitoring and biomarker screening. Therefore, salivary biomarkers can be used as an instrument for physical monitoring and localization of the occurrence of diseases, thereby accomplishing early diagnosis of diseases and assessment of the overall health status of patients. However, the actual application of salivary biomarkers in the diagnosis and treatment of systemic diseases is still not widely available, and the establishment of evaluation criteria and the exploration of its mechanism are not sufficiently investigated. Herein, we reviewed the latest research findings on applying the salivary biomarkers in the diagnosis of systemic diseases.
唾液是口腔腺体分泌的一种重要生物流体，具有多种功能。它对口腔组织起到清洁和保护作用，抵御生物、机械和化学刺激，同时还能实现味觉和温度的感官感知。它还负责食物的初步消化。唾液的这些功能和特性归因于唾液中存在电解质、缓冲剂、蛋白质、糖蛋白和脂质。最近的研究发现，唾液中含有与人体病理生理状态密切相关的生物标志物，这表明唾液是药物监测和生物标志物筛选的理想生物流体。因此，唾液生物标志物可作为身体监测和疾病发生定位的工具，从而实现疾病的早期诊断和患者整体健康状况的评估。然而，唾液生物标志物在系统性疾病诊断和治疗中的实际应用仍然不广泛，评估标准的建立及其机制的探索也未得到充分研究。在此，我们综述了唾液生物标志物在系统性疾病诊断中应用的最新研究结果。
