Title

Salivary biomarkers in psychobiological medicine

Authors

Francesco Chiappelli^1,*, Francisco Javier Iribarren², Paolo Prolo¹

Affiliation

¹ CHS 63-090, UCLA School of Dentistry, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1668, USA; ² UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1668, USA

Email

chiappelli@dent.ucla.edu

Phone

+310-794-6625

Fax

+310-7947109; * Corresponding author

Article Type

Current Trends

Date

received December 21, 2006; revised December 28, 2006; accepted December 29, 2006; published online December 29, 2006

Abstract

The value of salivary biomarkers for diagnostic and prognostic assessments has become increasingly well established in medicine, pharmacology, and dentistry.  Certain salivary components mirror the neuro-endocrine status of the organism.  Other saliva products are protein in nature, and can serve to reflect immune surveillance processes. The autonomic nervous system regulates the process of salivation, and the concentration of yet other salivary components, such as α-amylase, which provide a reliable outcome measure of the sympathetic response.  Here, we discuss molecular technologies that have permitted giant steps in the utilization of salivary samples and micro-fluidics for the benefit of diagnostic medicine and dentistry, and their putative role in springing forward research in psychobiology.

Keywords

saliva; biomarker; physiology; psychobiology; diagnosis

Citation

Edited by

P. Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.