Metabolic Markers of Caries in Saliva and Plaque of Toddlers

Objectives: Targeted healthcare is paramount for cost-effective caries management. Objective: Our long-term objective is to identify predictive markers of dental caries risk in young children. The objective of this study was to compare saliva and plaque as possible targets for metabolomic screening of caries activity in toddlers.
Methods: Methods: Saliva and plaque samples were collected from a group of 50 children (1-3 years of age): 25 caries-free (no caries lesions– cavitated or non-cavitated– and low caries risk) and 25 caries-active (3-or-more active cavitated lesions). Collected specimens included two swabs soaked with pooled saliva from the buccal vestibules, and one microbrush with pooled plaque from the facial surface of maxillary central incisors and from any existing cavitated lesions. Samples were immediately placed in OM-505 tubes (DNA Genotek, Inc.) and frozen at -80°C until untargeted metabolomic profiling analyses on Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) and Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometry Detection (LC/MS/MS) platforms.
Results: Results: Global biochemical profiles determined from the saliva and plaque samples revealed a limited number of statistically significant (p<0.05) differences between children with dental caries as compared to healthy controls. These differences were consistent with subtle indications of increased microbial activity and included polyamines and aromatic amino acid degradation products. Additionally, a trend of elevated lactate levels in the plaque of children with dental caries was observed. Random Forest Analysis (predictive accuracies of 60 and 51%, respectively, for saliva and plaque samples) and Principal Component Analysis showed limited ability to segregate diseased from healthy subjects based on the metabolomic profiles in saliva or plaque.
Conclusions: Conclusion: Under the conditions of this study there were limited significant differences between caries-active and caries-free children’s plaque and salivary metabolomes.