Abstract. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of pre-analytical processing on proteomic analysis of saliva and to identify salivary biomarkers for potential clinical applications. Saliva samples from five healthy individuals and three head and neck squamous carcinoma (HNSC) patients were initially depleted of major protein constituents. Saliva from healthy subjects was divided and processed by three different methods prior to liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry technique (LC-MS/MS) analysis. The results showed marked differences amongst the methods. The SDS-PAGE separation and in-gel digestion method yielded the highest number of proteins that included the majority of those identified by the other two methods. The in geldigestion method was used in the LC-MS/MS analysis of saliva from three HNSC patients and the results were compared with those from healthy subjects. Our analysis identified two proteins, ·-1-B-glycoprotein and complement factor B proteins, to be present in patients but not in normal specimens. Paradoxically, cystatin S, parotid secretory factor, and poly-4-hydrolase ß-subunit proteins were detected in most normal salivas but not in patient specimens. Subsequent analysis of complement factor B by Western blotting showed strong immunoreactive bands of complement factor B in HNSC patients' and negative or weakly positive in normal saliva samples. We conclude that: 1) initial saliva processing affects protein analysis, 2) in-gel digestion followed by LC-MS/MS detects the most saliva proteins, 3) certain proteins are differentially found in patient and normal salivas and 4) a small set of proteins can be targeted for future validation for clinical investigation.
IntroductionSaliva is a readily accessible secretion that plays an important role in the maintenance of oral homeostasis, tooth integrity, initiation of digestion, and antimicrobial defense (1-3). Saliva is protein rich and may constitute a valuable source of diagnostic and therapeutic markers in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) patients (4-6). The major components of saliva are mucins, proline-rich glycoproteins, amylase, lipase and a variety of antimicrobial proteins and peptides that include agglutinin, cystatins, lisozyme, lactoferrin, immunoglobulins, histatins and defensins (7-17). Numerous less common proteins derived from either active salivary secretion or through plasma filtration have also been identified (18-21). Analysis of these proteins may provide important information in health and diseased states.It has recently been acknowledged that proteomic analysis reflects the net sum of the metabolic and functional states of cells and secretions from tissues (22). Advances in both technological and bioinformatic fields have led to a plethora of efforts to identify diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic targets using human secretions and body fluids (4). However, major obstacles remain to complicate and impede the clinical implementation of this technology in human materials. These include sa...