2025 · Molecular genetics and metabolism · paywalled
The mitochondrial disease biomarker GDF15 is dynamic, quantifiable in saliva, and correlates with disease severity
Huang et al.
The finding, in our words
Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) is significantly elevated in both plasma and saliva of patients with mitochondrial disease, and saliva GDF15 levels correlate with disease severity. This supports saliva as a patient-centric matrix for decentralised disease monitoring, potentially reducing the need for venous blood draws.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This review establishes that microsampling across blood, saliva, urine and stool matrices offers validated workflows and regulatory recognition for human biomonitoring comparable to conventional methods. It finds that these decentralised approaches enhance participant acceptability and enable screening in remote or low-resource settings.
Among 101 working-age women in Chicago, 70% returned at-home kits for capillary blood and saliva collection, demonstrating that patient-centric microsampling of stress biomarkers (cortisol and CRP) is feasible in diverse urban populations. This supports decentralised diagnostics for population health research.
This review found saliva comparable to blood and urine for detecting viral genetic material and antibodies, supporting patient-centric monitoring and decentralised surveillance. The authors state that standardised protocols and further validation are required for routine clinical use.
A graphene lab-on-a-chip device achieved high accuracy and precision for multiplex renal biomarker testing in serum and saliva, with sensitivities ranging from 89.0 to 99.7 per cent. Untrained volunteers produced results comparable to trained chemists, suggesting the device is suitable for patient-centric at-home diagnostics and could improve access to chronic kidney disease monitoring.
This study of 184 individuals showed that home collection of dried blood spots and saliva can identify genetic polymorphisms linked to cardiac serum markers. Seven SNPs associated significantly with markers such as Apo B, LDL Direct, and hsCRP, while a polygenic risk score correlated strongly with NT-proBNP (r²=0.82, P=.03) and ox-LDL (r²=0.94, P=.005). These results indicate decentralised genetic sampling could enable early cardiovascular risk assessment and identify patients requiring closer serological monitoring.