Salivary DJ-1 could be an indicator of Parkinson's disease progression

The goal of the current investigation was to explore whether salivary DJ-1 could be a potential biomarker for monitoring disease progression in Parkinson's disease (PD) by evaluating the association between salivary DJ-1 concentrations and nigrostriatal dopaminergic function.

First, in 74 patients with PD and 12 age-matched normal controls, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging with labeled dopamine transporters (DAT) ((99m)Tc-TRODAT-1), which has been used for measuring DAT density in PD was prformed. Then, the DJ-1 level in their saliva was analyzed by quantitative and sensitive Luminex assay and compared to caudate or putamen DAT density. Finally, based on the above, our cross-section study was carried out in 376 research volunteers (285 patients with PD and 91 healthy controls) to measure salivary DJ-1 level.

From our analysis, we found a correlation between salivary concentration of DJ-1 and putamen nucleus uptake of (99m)Tc-TRODAT-1 in the PD group. Although salivary DJ-1 levels were not affected by UPDRS scores, gender, age, and pharmacotherapy, DJ-1 levels in H&Y 4 stage of PD were higher than those in H&Y 1-3 stage as well as those in healthy controls. Salivary DJ-1 also decreased significantly in mixed type PD patients compared to the tremor-dominant type (TDT) and akinetic-rigid dominant type (ARDT) PD patients.

According to the investigation in a large cohort, we reported for the first time the prognostic potential of the salivary DJ-1 as a biomarker for evaluating nigrostriatal dopaminergic function in PD.