Salivary Diagnostics in Pediatrics: Applicability, Translatability, and Limitations

Area of Science:

• Pediatric diagnostics
• Salivary biomarkers
• Omics technologies

Background:

• Technological advances have enabled salivary diagnostic platforms for health monitoring.
• Current salivary assays primarily target adult diseases, neglecting pediatric populations.
• Saliva analysis offers a non-invasive approach to assess oral and systemic health in children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review novel applications of salivary diagnostics in pediatrics across the "omic" spectrum.
• To discuss challenges in implementing pediatric salivary platforms.
• To emphasize the need for large-scale trials to establish normative pediatric salivary biomarker values.

Main Methods:

• Review of current literature on salivary diagnostics in pediatrics.
• Exploration of "omic" approaches including genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, microbiomics, and metabolomics.
• Analysis of factors affecting salivary components in children, such as age, diet, and development.

Main Results:

• "Omic" analyses of saliva hold significant potential for improving pediatric care and health access.
• Novel applications exist across genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, microbiomic, and metabolomic levels.
• Challenges include age-related variations, dietary influences, and developmental changes in salivary composition.

Conclusions:

• Salivary diagnostics can significantly improve pediatric health monitoring and disease detection.
• Overcoming implementation challenges requires further research and standardization.
• Large-scale, multicenter trials are essential to establish normative pediatric biomarker values for clinical translation.