Title

Evaluation of salivary biomarkers predicting oral disease activity in apparently healthy individuals

Authors

Setu Kalaria^1,*, Sandhya Chavan², Pradnya Jadhav³, Swapnil Sunil Bumb⁴, Roshni Dupare⁵ & Priyanka Machale⁶

Affiliation

¹Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, AMC Dental College, Khokhra, Ahmedabad, India; ²Department of Public Health Dentistry, Government Dental College and Hospital, Mumbai, India; ³Department of Public Health Dentistry, Government Dental College and Hospital, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, India; ⁴Department of Public Health Dentistry, Mithila Minority Dental College and Hospital, Darbhanga, Bihar, India; ⁵Department of Public Health Dentistry, Government Dental College and Hospital, Nagpur, India; ⁶Department of Public Health Dentistry, Government Dental College and Hospital, Maharashtra, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Setu Kalaria - E-mail: seturveshk1121@gmail.com
Sandhya Chavan - E-mail: Sandhya.chavan84@gmail.com
Pradnya Jadhav - E-mail: drpradnya789@gmail.com
Swapnil Sunil Bumb - E-mail: drswapnilbumb@gmail.com
Roshni Dupare - E-mail: drroshnidupare@yahoo.in
Priyanka Machale - E-mail: priyanka_machale@yahoo.in

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received May 1, 2026; Revised May 31, 2026; Accepted May 31, 2026, Published May 31, 2026

Abstract

Early detection of oral diseases is challenging because they often develop asymptomatically and remain undiagnosed until irreversible tissue damage occurs. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the predictive validity of salivary biomarkers (MMP-8, IL-1β and cortisol) for oral disease activity in 120 systemically and periodontally healthy individuals over six months. Baseline unstimulated saliva samples were analyzed using ELISA, followed by comprehensive clinical examinations at baseline and follow-up. Individuals who developed gingivitis or early periodontitis showed significantly higher baseline levels of MMP-8 and IL-1β (p<0.001), with ROC analysis demonstrating high predictive accuracy for MMP-8 (sensitivity 88%, specificity 82%). Salivary biomarkers may serve as reliable early predictors of oral disease activity, supporting a shift toward preventive and precision-based dental care.

Keywords

Salivary diagnostics; matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP-8); Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β); biomarkers; oral disease prediction; preventive dentistry; periodontitis

Citation

Kalaria et al. Bioinformation 22(5): 2806-2810 (2026)

Edited by

Hiroj Bagde

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.