Metabonomic analysis of saliva reveals generalized chronic periodontitis signature

The diagnoses of periodontal diseases (PD) are primarily based on clinical examination and radiographic parameters. In this pilot exploration we want to supply some evidence whether metabonomic profiling of saliva samples can provide a signature of the disease. Saliva samples were analyzed by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) metabonomics from 22 healthy subjects (HS) and 32 patients with clinic and radiographic diagnosis of different PD: Gingivitis (G), Localized Chronic Periodontitis (LCP), Generalized Chronic Periodontitis (GCP), Localized Aggressive Periodontitis (LAP), and Generalized Aggressive Periodontitis (GAP). Pattern recognition analysis of NMR profiles can discriminate GCP patients (n = 21) from HS (n = 22) with an accuracy of 84.1%. Metabolic profiles of GCP patients exhibited higher concentrations of acetate, c-aminobutyrate, n-butyrate, succinate, trimethylamine, propionate, phenylalanine and valine