Saliva Tests May Someday Replace Needles

U.S. researchers have good news for those who don’t like blood tests for cancer, heart disease or diabetes — these tests may some day be spit tests.

Saliva tests may some day be possible for the cataloging of the complete salivary proteome — a set of proteins in human ductal saliva.

The salivary proteome was identified by a consortium of three research teams, James E. Melvin at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Eastman Dental Center, in collaboration with the research labs of Mark Sullivan and Fred K. Hagen.

Defining exact protein pathways on a comprehensive scale enables the development of early diagnostic testing and precise drug design.

The study, published in the Journal of Proteome Research, said that salivary proteins may represent new tools for tracking disease throughout the body — tools that are potentially easier to monitor in saliva than in blood.

The researchers said the definition of saliva is evolving. Saliva once referred to everything in oral fluid, but among researchers today, saliva is increasingly reserved for just the salivary gland secretions — ductal saliva.