DMBT1, S100A7 and SPINK4 in Relation to Dental Caries Activity and Salivary Flow Rate in Adults

A Case-Control Study

Forfattere

  • Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa Department of Biology, College of Education for Pure Sciences, University of Samarra
  • Layla Abd Alsattar Sadiq Laylani Department of Community Health, Kirkuk Technical Medical Institute, Northern Technical University, Kirkuk, Iraq
  • Adeeb M. F. Al-Samarrai Directorate General of Salah Uddin Education, Ministry of Education, Salah ad Din, Iraq
  • Zaid Khalid Alani College of Pharmacy, Al-Turath University, Baghdad, Iraq
  • Esraa Ahmed Abdul Qader Department of Medical Laboratory Techniques, Al-Farahidi University, Baghdad, Iraq
  • Weam Wael Salman Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, College of Pharmacy, Al-Bayan University, Baghdad, Iraq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/d3000.2026.1621

Nøgleord:

Dental Caries, Saliva, Tooth Loss, Risks

Resumé

Saliva delivers a network of innate defense proteins to the tooth surface, but several recently characterized salivary proteins have not been examined in relation to caries activity. This study assessed whether unstimulated salivary deleted in malignant brain tumors 1 (DMBT1), psoriasin (S100A7) and serine peptidase inhibitor Kazal type 4 (SPINK4) differ according to caries activity in adults and how they relate to salivary flow rate and pH. In this case-control study, 88 adults aged 18–35 years were allocated to caries-free (n = 28), low or inactive caries (n = 30) and high active caries (n = 30) groups based on caries experience, lesion severity and clinical lesion activity. Unstimulated whole saliva was collected; flow rate, pH and total protein were recorded, and the three proteins were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and expressed as raw concentration, per milligram of total protein and as output per minute. Flow rate and pH declined across the groups, whereas total protein rose. DMBT1 and S100A7 concentrations increased with caries activity and correlated positively with caries experience and active lesion count and negatively with flow rate. After normalization to total protein, the DMBT1 difference disappeared, whereas S100A7 retained a weaker ordered trend. SPINK4 concentration did not differ, although its protein-normalized level and output were lower in the caries groups. S100A7 best discriminated high active caries from caries-free status (area under the curve 0.854) and remained associated with this group after adjustment for age, sex, plaque and sugar intake (odds ratio 1.60 per ng/mL), including in penalized models also adjusted for flow rate. The salivary innate response to active caries appears protein specific. S100A7 is a candidate activity marker warranting prospective validation, raw DMBT1 largely reflects reduced salivary volume, and the lower SPINK4 values are exploratory because they depend on flow- and protein-based derivations.

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Publiceret

2026-10-06

Nummer

Årg. 14 Nr. 3 (2026): Fall

Sektion

Mechanisms of Oral Disease

Licens

Copyright (c) 2026 Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa, Layla Abd Alsattar Sadiq Laylani, Adeeb M. F. Al-Samarrai, Zaid Khalid Alani, Esraa Ahmed Abdul Qader, Weam Wael Salman

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