New diabetes saliva-based diagnostic test in the works

HOUSTON A new saliva-based test for the identification and diagnosis of diabetes is under development, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists announced Tuesday.

Research promoting a painless new method for detecting diabetes, utilizing saliva, will be presented May 15, at the AACE’s 18th Annual Meeting & Clinical Congress in Houston.

While searching for biomarkers that may indicate diabetes, doctors examined the saliva of 40 patients. Through salivary analysis, they managed to devise a new “non-invasive” method for detecting diabetes that foregoes the uncomfortable prick of a needle — patients need only to spit into a cup. The spit test could be performed for little cost in a doctor's office or at a patient's home.

“Our goal was to characterize proteins in human saliva that may indicate prediabetes and Type-2,” stated Srinivasa Nagalla, a member of the research team. “Analysis of these proteins allowed us to develop a new method for screening, detecting and monitoring the diabetic state.”