"Slyunomika": new diagnostic possibilities for the composition of saliva
Accuracy, ease of use and non-invasiveness are the most important characteristics of any diagnostic method. The new concept presented at the 37th Annual Congress of the American Dental Research Association - Salivaomics Knowledge Base (SKB) – fully meets these three conditions and is a diagnostic atlas of saliva in silico (in the form of a computer program).
Taking into account the fact that recently people are increasingly preferring "virtual activity", SKB should become a kind of catalyst for the development and expansion of the possibilities of "salivary diagnostics". Over the past three years, saliva has established itself as a promising material for the diagnosis of oral cancer. The result of this was a keen interest shown by specialists and the general public in the diagnostic value of saliva.
SKB is based on two newly developed diagnostic "dictionaries" of saliva: a proteome (a set of proteins) and a transcriptome (a set of mRNAs indicating the expression of the corresponding genes). In SKB, the saliva proteome and transcriptome are mapped for 23 human chromosomes and consist of 1166 individual proteins and 851 unique mRNAs. Currently available information includes profiles of healthy men and women, as well as patients with oral cancer.
These profiles can be used to identify differences between the study groups. For example, if someone is interested in the differences between the protein or transcriptomic saliva profiles of men and women, a user-friendly interface will allow you to extract the information of interest from the database. To do this, using a personal computer, you can get a general idea of the distribution of biomarkers in 23 human chromosomes, after which you can study specific gene segments in detail to obtain more detailed information.
The first step to launch the SKB initiative has already been taken. The database is already expanding and in the near future it will include data on markers of diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, pancreatic, breast, lung and ovarian cancer contained in saliva. The short-term objective of creating SKB is to provide interested specialists with access to existing information in order to reduce the likelihood of duplication of research and enhance the attractiveness of diagnostics using saliva.
Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of ScienceDaily
14.04.2008