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Volume 1 Issue 7
|
I
ssues and
P
eople
Revealing the
SECRETSOF SALIVA
CDA:
What is the focus of your research?
Dr. Walter Siqueira:
I’m trying to
identify biomarkers in saliva to determine
one’s vulnerability to several oral and
systemic diseases, and I’m trying to prevent
oral disease using modified salivary proteins.
CDA:
What made you leave Boston
University to join Western University?
WS:
The support researchers receive in
Canada. This country has a unique program,
the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI),
which helps setting up research laboratories.
Thanks to CFI, we have a mass spectrometer
dedicated solely to our research purposes.
Only in Canada did I have this opportunity.
When I first visited London, I was amazed by
the university’s infrastructure and people’s
collegiality. I knew it was a good place to
settle down. I’ve never regretted moving.
CDA:
Why is saliva research so promising?
WS:
Everything we can detect in serum,
we can detect in saliva. Technology used to
be our limiting factor but now, with mass
spectrometers being so sensitive, we’re
able to identify salivary biomarkers. On
top of being time and cost efficient, saliva
collection isn’t an invasive prodecure and
Thanks to a 5-minute procedure, dentists could be
involved in the early detection of several diseases.
That would put dentists where we need to be—
key players in our patients’ overall health.
Dr. Walter Siqueira is associate professor in dentistry and biochemistry at the Schulich School of Medicine &Dentistry.
He is also the principal investigator at the only Canadian research laboratory dedicated solely to saliva research. CDA
discussed the importance of saliva as both a diagnostic and therapeutic fluid with Dr. Siqueira.
doesn’t need to be performed by highly
trained professionals—you only need to spit
in a tube.
CDA:
How do you think the use of saliva
as a diagnostic fluid will change dentistry?
WS:
I think dentists will work more closely
with physicians to help diagnose systemic
conditions. A saliva profile is like a fingerprint
of one’s health status: it shows their
vulnerability not only to dental disease but
also many other conditions, such as lung
cancer, renal disease and Dengue Fever.
Thanks to a 5-minute procedure, dentists
could be involved in the early detection of
several diseases. That would put dentists
where we need to be— key players in our
patients’ overall health.
CDA:
How close are we to using saliva as
a diagnostic fluid?
WS:
We’re not close enough, because each
disease needs to be studied separately. That
said, we can now buy saliva-based HIV test
kits in drugstores in the United States.
My laboratory is working with researchers
from the Boston Medical Center on
pulmonary disease detection, including
asthma. So far, 10 salivary biomarkers have
been identified to predict the exacerbation
of asthma over a 24–48 hour period.
Walter Siqueira
DDS, PhD