Salivary Proteomic Analysis for Obesity, Periodontal Disease in Hispanic Adolescents

Objectives: Obesity and periodontal disease are considered two important diseases in developed countries. Most studies on proteomics are mainly associated with non-Hispanic White populations. There are no reports of salivary biomarkers for the detection of periodontal disease and obesity in adolescents. This study’s aim was to explore biomarkers’ detection from the salivary proteome of Hispanic adolescents participating in a study of obesity and periodontal disease.
Methods: Biomarkers’ detection was explored by obtaining the salivary proteome of 186 participants’ ages 13 to 17 years who were students from the San Juan Municipality Area with low socioeconomic status. The salivary proteomes were analyzed using the HuProt Assay from CDI Next Gen Proteomics. ANOVA statistical analysis was performed to identify statistically significant protein-coding genes, with a fold change expression value cutoff of 2.0. To examine the effect of all differentially expressed proteins in relation to their biological functions, Ingenuity Pathway Analysis software was used to annotate, validate and generate pathway analyses associated with the identified protein-coding genes.
Results: Twelve de-regulated proteins for periodontal disease were identified, eight proteins as up-regulated and four down-regulated. For obesity, seven de-regulated proteins were identified, four up-regulated and three down-regulated. Validation’s results: for periodontal disease two up-regulated proteins were validated. The protein-coding-gene PRB1 is associated with multiple dental disorders and found to be the most up-regulated protein in periodontal disease from the analysis. This result may indicate a high correlation between periodontal disease and PRB1. Results suggest ITGA4 may act as a pro-inflammatory protein-coding-gene associated with periodontal disease. For obesity one protein was validated; the protein-coding-gene PPIA has been found to be associated with obesity, cardiovascular diseases and type 2 Diabetes.
Conclusions: This new set of specific salivary biomarkers for Hispanics adolescents may help to understand the biological relationships between periodontal disease and obesity in adolescents.