Using NMR in saliva to identify possible biomarkers of glioblastoma and chronic periodontitis

PLoS One. 2018 Feb 6;13(2):e0188710. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188710. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Nowadays there is increasing interest in identifying-and using-metabolites that can be employed as biomarkers for diagnosing, treating and monitoring diseases. Saliva and NMR have been widely used for this purpose as they are fast and inexpensive methods. This case-control study aimed to find biomarkers that could be related to glioblastoma (GBL) and periodontal disease (PD) and studied a possible association between GBL and periodontal status. The participants numbered 130, of whom 10 were diagnosed with GBL and were assigned to the cases group, while the remaining 120 did not present any pathology and were assigned to the control group. On one hand, significantly increased (p < 0.05) metabolites were found in GBL group: leucine, valine, isoleucine, propionate, alanine, acetate, ethanolamine and sucrose. Moreover, a good tendency to separation between the two groups was observed on the scatterplot of the NMR. On the other hand, the distribution of the groups attending to the periodontal status was very similar and we didn´t find any association between GBL and periodontal status (Chi-Square 0.1968, p = 0.91). Subsequently, the sample as a whole (130 individuals) was divided into three groups by periodontal status in order to identify biomarkers for PD. Group 1 was composed of periodontally healthy individuals, group 2 had gingivitis or early periodontitis and group 3 had moderate to advanced periodontitis. On comparing periodontal status, a significant increase (p < 0.05) in certain metabolites was observed. These findings along with previous reports suggest that these could be used as biomarkers of a PD: caproate, isocaproate+butyrate, isovalerate, isopropanol+methanol, 4 aminobutyrate, choline, sucrose, sucrose-glucose-lysine, lactate-proline, lactate and proline. The scatter plot showed a good tendency to wards separation between group 1 and 3.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Biomarkers / metabolism*
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Chronic Periodontitis / metabolism*
  • Female
  • Glioblastoma / metabolism*
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / methods*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Saliva / metabolism*
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Biomarkers

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Conselleria de Sanitat Universal i Salut Pública, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain (SAF2014-52875R) and Instituto de Salud Carlos III and FEDER [grant number PIE15/00013]. Almerich-Silla JM is the principal researcher, http://www.san.gva.es/inicio. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.