title: Diabetes-related molecular signatures in infrared spectra of human saliva.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is an ongoing need for improvements in non-invasive, point-of-care tools for the diagnosis and prognosis of diabetes mellitus. Ideally, such technologies would allow for community screening.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, we employed infrared spectroscopy as a novel diagnostic tool in the prediction of diabetic status by analyzing the molecular and sub-molecular spectral signatures of saliva collected from subjects with diabetes (n = 39) and healthy controls (n = 22).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Spectral analysis revealed differences in several major metabolic components - lipid, proteins, glucose, thiocyanate and carboxylate - that clearly demarcate healthy and diseased saliva. The overall accuracy for the diagnosis of diabetes based on infrared spectroscopy was 100% on the training set and 88.2% on the validation set. Therefore, we have established that infrared spectroscopy can be used to generate complex biochemical profiles in saliva and identify several potential diabetes-associated spectral features.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Infrared spectroscopy may represent an appropriate tool with which to identify novel diseases mechanisms, risk factors for diabetic complications and markers of therapeutic efficacy. Further study into the potential utility of infrared spectroscopy as diagnostic and prognostic tool for diabetes is warranted.
authors.affiliation: Oral Health and Systemic Disease, University of Louisville, Louisville, S Preston St, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA. dascot07@louisville.edu.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.forename: Diane E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Renaud
authors.forename: Sathya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Krishnasamy
authors.forename: Pinar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Meriç
authors.forename: Nurcan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Buduneli
authors.forename: Svetki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cetinkalp
authors.forename: Kan-Zhi
authors.initials: KZ
authors.lastname: Liu