Salivary Neuropeptide Y, Interleukin-18, Tight Junction Proteins and Malondialdehyde as a Neuroimmune-Barrier Panel in Periodontitis

A Case-Control Study

نویسندگان

  • Maysam Ibrahim Mahdi
  • Ghufran Nazam Abdul-Hur
  • Sanan Thaer Abdalwahab
  • Esraa Ahmed Abdul Qader
  • Aymen Al-Shaybani
  • Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa

DOI::

https://doi.org/10.5195/d3000.2026.1625

کلمات کلیدی:

Periodontitis, Periodontics, Saliva, Biomarkers

چکیده

Periodontitis involves interacting neural, immune, oxidative and epithelial barrier pathways, yet these are rarely measured together in the same patients. This cross-sectional case–control study evaluated a salivary panel comprising neuropeptide Y, interleukin-18, zonula occludens-1, claudin-2 and malondialdehyde in periodontitis. Forty non-smoking patients with periodontitis (Stage II, n = 20; Stage III–IV, n = 20) and 40 age- and sex-matched periodontitis-free controls were recruited at Tikrit Teaching Hospital, Iraq, between February and July 2026. Unstimulated whole saliva was analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and diagnostic performance was assessed by receiver operating characteristic analysis with bootstrap internal validation, followed by multivariable logistic regression. All five biomarkers were 1.7- to 2.0-fold higher in periodontitis (all P < 0.001), remained higher after accounting for salivary flow (P ≤ 0.002), increased with disease severity (P for trend < 0.001) and correlated with probing depth, attachment loss and bleeding on probing (Spearman coefficients 0.36–0.52). Individual areas under the curve ranged from 0.74 for claudin-2 to 0.81 for interleukin-18. The combined panel reached an area under the curve of 0.90 (95% confidence interval 0.83–0.97; optimism-corrected 0.88), exceeding interleukin-18 (P = 0.012) and malondialdehyde (P = 0.006). After adjustment for age, sex and plaque index, neuropeptide Y, interleukin-18 and malondialdehyde remained independently associated with periodontitis, whereas zonula occludens-1 and claudin-2 did not. A reduced panel of neuropeptide Y, interleukin-18 and malondialdehyde performed comparably to the full panel (area under the curve 0.88; P = 0.284). Salivary neuropeptide Y, interleukin-18 and malondialdehyde are independently associated with periodontitis, whereas salivary tight junction proteins track disease severity without independent association, consistent with downstream barrier injury.

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چاپ شده

2026-10-06

شماره

دوره 14 شماره 3 (2026): Fall

نوع مقاله

Mechanisms of Oral Disease

مجوز

حق نشر 2026 Maysam Ibrahim Mahdi, Ghufran Nazam Abdul-Hur, Sanan Thaer Abdalwahab, Esraa Ahmed Abdul Qader, Aymen Al-Shaybani, Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa

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