In Silico Saliva Diagnostic Atlas Has Been Launched

A new concept, has been launched--an in silico (i.e., performed on computer or via computer simulation) saliva diagnostic atlas.

The recent creation of two diagnostic alphabets in saliva, the proteome and the transcriptome is central to the atlas, which is called the Salivaomics Knowledge Base (SKB). The salivary proteome and transcriptome are mapped to 23 human chromosomes, totaling 1,166 distinct proteins, and 851 unique mRNA transcripts in saliva. The available information presently includes profiles from healthy males and females, as well as oral cancer patients.

The database is expanding and will soon include information for pancreatic cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease. The short-term goal of the SKB is to share information with scientists globally in an effort to reduce redundancy and enhance the appeal of salivary diagnostics.

Protein and mRNA profiles can be used to determine distinct differences between groups of interest. For example, if one wants to know the differences in the salivary protein or transcriptome profiles of males and females, the user-friendly interface can be utilized to retrieve information from the database. First, an overview of the biomarker distribution on the 23 human chromosomes can be determined, and then one can zoom in on specific gene segments to extract more detailed information, all through a personal computer.

The saliva diagnostic atlas was presented by Dr. W. Yan of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA; Los Angeles, CA, USA) during the 37th annual meeting of the American Association for Dental Research in Dallas (TX, USA) on April 5, 2008.


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University of California in Los Angeles