Exploring the Scope of Salivary Proteomics in Periodontal Diagnosis: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Periodontal disorders are among the most widespread chronic illnesses globally which impact the tooth-supporting tissues and have a multitude of ramifications for one’s quality of life. The purpose of periodontal diagnostic methods is to offer meaningful information to clinicians about the type, location, and severity of periodontal disease so that disease monitoring and therapy may be established. Due to a lack of proper molecular diagnostic tools, their early detection is still difficult. Proteomics, the promising new “omics”, has become an important complementary tool to genomics providing novel information and greater insight into biology. The value of multidimensional peptide resolving approaches in the characterisation of complicated proteomes cannot be overstated and thus can very much be used as diagnostic biomarkers in periodontal world. Since proteomics is considered more intricate and complicated than genomics, the sound and rich facts of proteins concerned in periodontitis can be applied in the analysis, avoidance and management of periodontal diseases. Despite several novel protein markers being recently enlisted by discovery proteomics through various methods such as Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), immunoassays with Mass Spectroscopy (MS), Protein Topography and Migration Analysis platform (ProtoMap), Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption (MALDI) etc., their routine diagnostic application is hampered by the lack of validation platforms that can rapidly, accurately and simultaneous quantify multiple proteins in large populations. Furthermore, saliva contains a non invasively collected store of clinically relevant biomarkers, which, if properly employed, might aid in early illness detection and monitoring. Hence, in this context, this review aims to discuss the unravelling field of proteomics in brief and the scientific sphere of its development from laboratory to clinical practice and its implications in the field of periodontology.