Objective: The goal of this study is to ascertain whether salivary oxidative markers are altered in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and if there is an association of these markers with disease phenotype or disease severity.

Background: Studies have highlighted that blood samples of PD patients show altered oxidative stress markers, and the abnormality enhances along with the severity of the disease. Researchers are trying to identify a reliable non-invasive tool to diagnose PD that would be less cumbersome than CSF/blood sampling. Saliva has recently been shown to have the potential to become a clinically valuable biological sample for detecting disease biomarkers.

Method: Thirty PD patients and thirty age-matched healthy controls were recruited. Motor and cognitive severity assessments were undertaken from the cohort of PD patients using MDS-UPDRS part III and MOCA respectively. The PD patients were categorized into Tremor dominant (TD) and Postural instability and gait disorder (PIGD) phenotypes from UPDRS. Standard spectrophotometric techniques were used to determine the activity of salivary antioxidant enzymes such as reduced glutathione (GSH), superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD-1), and catalase. Correlations between clinical severity and levels of oxidative stress indicators were investigated.

Results: Both groups were comparable in terms of their clinical and demographic parameters. Salivary Catalase activity (p < 0.01) was found significantly lower in PD compared to Control. Salivary GSH concentration (p < 0.02) was found significantly lower in the PIGD type compared to TD type. However, there wasn’t any association of these markers with the disease severity of PD.

Conclusion: For the first time in the Indian context, we observed altered activity of oxidative enzymes in salivary samples of PD patients. Preliminary results allowed us to conclude that PIGD is possibly the more severe form of Parkinson’s Disease than TD. However, the small sample size is one major limitation of these findings and can be a contributor to the non-significant association of these markers with the clinical severity of PD. To address this, the recruitment of participants is ongoing to validate these markers in a larger cohort of the PD population. The current pilot study identifies certain foot marks suggesting salivary oxidative enzymes may be an effective, non-invasive, and reasonably affordable biomarker of idiopathic PD.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/identification-of-potential-oxidative-biomarkers-in-saliva-of-parkinsons-disease-patients/