Reassessed as the first factor of assimilation, then with the growing awareness that its lack of secretion is a true pathological condition - dry mouth syndrome SJA ¸ gren - now the saliva is proposed as a valuable indicator of the functioning of the whole organism and candida to replace blood in providing important diagnostic information: in the future, instead of asking his arm to draw blood, the doctors perhaps offers us a bottle in which to spit.
He speaks quite a while 'time and a recent issue of the Journal of Proteome Research "presents a study carried out on three groups of researchers from five American institutions: the Universityof Rochester, New York, Scripps Research Institute ( La Jolla), the University of California at San Francisco, the University of California at Los Angeles and then the University of Southern California, also in Los Angeles.

Although the data were compared to provide guidance and overall unit, each team has followed different approaches to the analysis of Aliva, confirming that it is a complex liquid, and its many components and properties, with still many secrets to reveal.
The digestive process is started by amylase and lipase. Lubrication, phonation, protection of the oral mucosa are some of functions of mucin. The integrity of the teeth and is favored by staterine istatine, which inhibits the precipitation of calcium phosphate. The antimicrobial activity is performed by a variety of components such as immunoglobulins, lactoferrin, lisozoma, lactoperoxidase, cystatin, and some still istatine glycoproteins.
The adjustment of the sense of taste is given by a zincoproteina commonly called Gustine. There are other more specialized functionality, but no less important as the ability of leukocyte protease inhibitor secretion (Slpi) to combat HIV infection or those of the proline-rich proteins, which serve to bind the tannins in food and make them less irritating to the gastrointestinal tract.

In addition to microbial products, exudates, mucosal, gingival crevicular fluid and scaly skin cells, saliva secretions contain two types of salivary glands: major and minor. To cope with such complexity, American scholars have proposed to produce a catalog of all the proteins present in saliva. Several technological tools used: mass spectrometry, a technique of choice is being used alone or in combination with liquid chromatography and electrospray ionization.
One is also used single or two-dimensional electrophoresis and the so-called MALDI (matrix - assisted laser desorption ionization). After operating independently - in the selection criteria for donors, in the process of collecting samples, the means of separation of components, acquisition and analysis of data - the research teams have been achieved in a centralized repository single computer run by the University of California at Los Angeles.
The proteins identified were 1166 and over one third of these are also present in blood plasma. Total protein, 914 are produced by the parotid gland, and sublingual sottzomandibolare from 917, with an overlap which indicates that more than half are secreted from more than one gland. Comparing them to known pathways, researchers have begun to cast a glance on the role of key proteins. An interesting result is the significant heterogeneity found in the saliva composition of the various donors. This adds a further complication, but suggests a deepening exploration of protein variability in different pathological conditions of the body, searching for biomarkers that could be useful in diagnosis.

A natural area of interest is certainly the oral diseases. For example, some polymorphisms of the cytokine IL-1 seemed to be related to periodontal problems and the level of mucin MUC7 in elderly patients is able to provide forecasts on virulence of Streptococcus mutans.
Although cancer is the oral mucosa is related to changes in the elements constituting the salivary fluid. It is however well known that oral health and systemic conditions are closely related and some time on their studies are increasing, accounting for the numerous and complex relationships that exist.
Even Paul Denny and his colleagues have therefore offered to provide materials to help diagnose systemic disease from the salivary composition. Many data have been acquired: it's already in use the test for HIV carried out from samples of saliva and is also a possible diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection.

According to the authors of this study, the data suggest that several other markers of systemic diseases may be present in saliva, "we think the list will expand soon to include indicators of those diseases that cause the greatest number of deaths today, as cancer and heart disease that, if diagnoticate early, can be treated with greater chance of success. "

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