Saliva as a sampling source for the detection of leukemic fusion transcripts

Area of Science:

• Molecular Diagnostics
• Biomarker Discovery
• Genomics

Background:

• Saliva is a valuable source for clinical diagnosis and therapeutic drug monitoring.
• Oral disease diagnosis and monitoring are key applications for saliva analysis.
• Investigating novel applications of saliva in disease detection is ongoing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if saliva RNA can be stably stored at room temperature.
• To assess saliva as a convenient source for detecting fusion transcripts in leukemia patients.
• To compare saliva-based detection of fusion transcripts with bone marrow analysis.

Main Methods:

• Development of a specialized Saliva RNA tube for room temperature storage.
• Cross-sectional diagnostic study design.
• Detection of leukemic fusion transcripts in whole saliva and comparison with bone marrow samples from leukemia patients and healthy controls.

Main Results:

• Stable detection of human gene transcripts in whole saliva stored at room temperature for at least four weeks.
• Concordant detection of leukemic fusion transcripts between saliva and bone marrow samples.
• Absence of detected fusion transcripts in healthy volunteers' saliva samples.

Conclusions:

• Human whole saliva is a reliable and convenient sampling source for detecting leukemic fusions.
• The developed Saliva RNA tube enables stable room temperature storage of saliva for molecular analysis.
• Saliva analysis offers a promising non-invasive alternative for leukemia diagnostics.