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Salivary DNA Methylation Profiling: Aspects to Consider for Biomarker Identification
Sabine A S Langie1,2, Matthieu Moisse3, Ken Declerck4
1Environmental Risk and Health Unit, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium.
Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology
|December 1, 2016
Summary
Saliva offers a comfortable, non-invasive alternative to blood for DNA analysis in epigenetics research. This biofluid enables reliable genomewide methylation analysis for disease risk studies, improving participant compliance.
Area of Science:
- Biochemistry
- Genetics
- Public Health
Background:
- Non-invasive methods are preferred for health analysis, especially in longitudinal studies.
- Saliva provides high-quality DNA suitable for epigenetic studies.
- Epigenetic mechanisms are crucial for understanding disease development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the applications of saliva in epigenetics, particularly for genomewide methylation analysis.
- To compare the advantages and disadvantages of using saliva versus blood for epigenetic studies.
- To identify challenges and suggest improvements for saliva-based epigenetic analysis.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on saliva-based epigenetics.
- Focus on genomewide methylation analysis techniques.
- Comparative analysis of saliva and blood as biofluids for DNA extraction.
Main Results:
- Saliva is a viable and convenient biofluid for DNA collection, yielding quality DNA for epigenetics.
- Genomewide methylation analysis in saliva is comparable to blood, with specific advantages in compliance.
- Challenges in data processing and interpretation exist but can be overcome with improved methods.
Conclusions:
- Saliva presents a promising, patient-friendly alternative to blood for epigenetic biomarker discovery.
- Standardized methods are needed to optimize saliva analysis for large-scale epidemiological and public health studies.
- Saliva is poised to become a preferred biofluid for future biomarker initiatives.
