Move over FIDO, let's all open wide...detection of breast cancer markers in saliva

[Lani]

J Oral Pathol Med. 2006 May;35(5):292-300. Related Articles, Links

The use of surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry to detect putative breast cancer markers in saliva: a feasibility study.

Streckfus CF, Bigler LR, Zwick M.

Professor, Diagnostic Sciences, University of Texas at Houston Health Science Center Dental Branch, Houston, TX, USA.

Background: Technologies are now available enabling saliva to be used to diagnose disease, predict disease progression, and monitor therapeutic efficacy. This pilot study describes the use of surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI) to detect putative breast cancer markers in saliva. Methods: Salivary specimens were analyzed as either pooled cancer saliva specimens, or individual specimens from healthy women and women diagnosed with carcinoma of the breast. The specimens were applied to a variety of protein chip arrays, washed extensively to remove unbound analytes and analyzed on a SELDI mass spectrometer. Results: The results of this initial study suggest that the WCX protein chip array prepared and washed at pH 3.5 yielded the most promising results. Additionally, the analyses revealed a number of proteins that were higher in intensity among the cancer subjects when compared with controls. These salivary proteins were present at the 18, 113, 170, 228 and 287 km/z ranges using SELDI analyses. Conclusions: The study suggests that saliva may be useful for high-throughput biomarker discovery.

PMID: 16630293 [PubMed - in process]