Indian scientists advance towards first saliva test for diabetes

Washington, Jan 14 (ANI): Researchers from India and Oregon have taken a step toward developing the first saliva test to detect and monitor how efficient is the treatment for Type 2 diabetes.

The number of cases of Type 2 diabetes, along with obesity has doubled in the last 30 years.

According to the researchers, their work represents the first comprehensive description of the proteins in the saliva of patients with Type 2 diabetes, also called non-insulin dependent diabetes.

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The study led by Paturi V. Rao, highlighted that early diagnosis and effective treatment is vital for preventing the disease's complications, including loss of vision, nerve damage, and kidney damage.

And one important barrier is the need for sometimes-painful needle sticks to draw blood for tests.

And scientists have said that the discomfort can discourage patients from properly monitoring their blood sugar levels.

For the study, the researchers examined saliva samples from individuals with and without Type 2 diabetes for protein biomarkers of diabetes.

They identified 65 proteins that appeared twice as often in the diabetic samples than the non-diabetic samples.

The researchers claimed that the newly identified proteins could lead to new, noninvasive tests for diabetes screening, detection, and monitoring.

The study was published in a recent issue of ACS' Journal of Proteome Research. (ANI)