Alzheimer's: Could A Saliva Test Screen For The Neurodegenerative Illness?

A new study presented at the annual Alzheimer's Associational International Conference found that levels of metabolites found in saliva may help doctors diagnose Alzheimer's disease, based on results presented Sunday.

For the study, researchers took saliva samples from 22 people with Alzheimer's, 25 people with mild cognitive impairment and 35 people who were aging normally.

"Saliva is easily obtained, safe and affordable, and has promising potential for predicting and tracking cognitive decline, but we're in the very early stages of this work and much more research is needed," said Shraddha Sapkota, a neuroscience graduate student at the University of Alberta in Canada, in a news release.

Based on clinical diagnoses and cognitive data from the Victoria Longitudinal Study, they found that predominant substances in each group's saliva could be associated with their cognitive abilities.

While researchers noted that the findings are promising, they also noted that more research will be needed based on the high number of substances in saliva and the small number of participants in the study.

"This is a very preliminary study with a small number of subjects and the results are far from conclusive," said Dr. Allison Reiss, head of the Inflammation Section at Winthrop-University Hospital, told CBS News. "There are many gaps in the evidence. It is uncertain whether the strength and consistency of the relationship between these metabolites and Alzheimer's risk will be maintained in a large multicenter study."

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