Depression in early adolescence: Contributions from relational aggression and variation in the oxytocin receptor gene

Using the Oragene saliva device, this study identified elevated CYP2C8 allele frequencies in a Saudi paediatric cohort compared to other Asian populations, suggesting potential variability in ibuprofen metabolism and drug response.

Pediatric pharmacogenetics: profiling CYP2C8 polymorphisms at King Abdulaziz University Dental Clinic — Bagher et al., Drug metabolism and personalized therapy (paywalled) · source ↗

• saliva
• dna-genotek-oragene
• pediatric
• genotyping

Using the Oragene Discovery 500 series for decentralised saliva collection in 524 African American adolescents, this study found that positive neighbourhood conditions relate to fewer behavioural difficulties, despite genetic risk. The authors note that most gene-environment studies of behaviour use European ancestry samples, limiting generalisability to African American youth.

Genetic Risk, Neighborhood Characteristics, and Behavioral Difficulties Among African American Adolescents Living in Very Low-Income Neighborhoods — Sterrett-Hong et al., Research on child and adolescent psychopathology (paywalled) · source ↗

• dna-genotek-oragene
• pediatric
• saliva
• genotyping

This proof-of-principle study found that baseline salivary DNA methylation, collected using the Oragene DNA kit, predicted childhood obesity three years later. A child at the 75th percentile of NRF1 methylation had a 48% chance of obesity versus 30% at the 25th percentile, showing the value of salivary microsampling for paediatric screening.

Salivary epigenetic biomarkers as predictors of emerging childhood obesity — Rushing et al., BMC medical genetics · source ↗

• saliva
• dna-genotek-oragene
• pediatric
• genotyping

Saliva self-collection with Oragene tubes enabled genotyping of COMT polymorphisms in children, revealing that the AA genotype buffers the negative effect of authoritarian parenting on long-term executive dysfunction after early childhood traumatic brain injury. This demonstrates how decentralised genetic sampling can support longitudinal neurodevelopmental studies in paediatric populations.

Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Genotypes and Parenting Influence on Long-Term Executive Functioning After Moderate to Severe Early Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury: An Exploratory Study — Kurowski et al., The Journal of head trauma rehabilitation (paywalled) · source ↗

• saliva
• dna-genotek-oragene
• pediatric
• genotyping

DNA concentration from whole saliva correlates positively with age, so children yield significantly less DNA than adults. This means saliva collection protocols for genetic studies must be adjusted for paediatric populations to ensure adequate DNA quantity for genotyping.

The effect of age on DNA concentration from whole saliva: implications for the standard isolation method — Gassó et al., American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council (paywalled) · source ↗

• saliva
• dna-genotek-oragene
• validation
• pediatric
• genotyping