Salivary metabolomics in patients with oral lichen planus: a preliminary study based on NMR spectroscopy

The present preliminary study aimed to investigate the salivary metabolic profile in patients with asymptomatic oral lichen planus (OLP) using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy.

Stimulated whole mouth saliva (SWMS) samples were collected from 15 reticular OLP female patients and 15 from age- and sex-matched controls (HCs). A total of 23 metabolites were identified and quantified. Mann–Whitney’s U test was used to compare the determined concentration salivary metabolite concentrations between OLP patients and the healthy controls.

The concentration of acetate, methylamine, and pyruvate was elevated, whereas the concentration of tyrosine was decreased in the saliva of OLP patients compared with HCs. To identify a combination of metabolites, multivariate discrimination function analysis (DFA) was conducted. DFA analysis have shown that the most powerful discrimination between the groups was achieved when methylamine and tyrosine were considered as combined biomarkers.

Salivary tyrosine was of particular interest and a promising finding for the screening of OLP and its progression. Further longitudinal studies are required to establish it as a reliable salivary biomarker in OLP.

The salivary metabolic profiling can describe the pathologic characteristics of OLP on non-invasive saliva samples and NMR analysis. Salivary metabolites provide details to considered early detectors and to impact oral health of OLP patients.