As we all know, there are currently no tests that definitively diagnose Fibromyalgia. Over the past few years, there have been several attempts made in Fibromyalgia research of specific biological biomarkers of the syndrome. For the first time, a November 2009 study conducted a proteomic analysis of the whole saliva of FM patients in order to evaluate salivary biomarkers. The study consisted of 22 patients who met the American College of Rheumathology diagnostic criteria for Fibromyalgia and 26 healthy subjects, sex and age matched, were also in the study.
According to ProHealth, here are the details of the study:
Proteomic analysis was performed by combining 2-DE and MALDI-TOF-MS.
The most relevant observation which emerged from the data analysis was the exclusive and significant over-expression of transaldolase and phosphoglycerate mutase I. These findings were validated by Western blot analysis and the total optical density confirmed the significant up-regulation of transaldolase and phosphoglycerate mutase I in FM samples with respect to healthy subjects.
It was noteworthy that seven further salivary proteins resulted differentially expressed, namely: calgranulin A, calgranulin C, cyclophilin A, profilin 1, Rho GDP-dissociation inhibitor 2, proteasome subunit-?-type-2 and haptoglobin-related protein precursor.
These preliminary results demonstrated the utility of salivary proteomic analysis in the identification of salivary biomarkers in FM patients and in clarifying some of the pathogenetic aspects of the disease.
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