A new study conducted by a team of researchers at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece suggests that a simple saliva test can replace the blood sugar level test for diabetes assessment.

The study finds that proteins in saliva reflect high blood sugar and associated disease processes in young patients with type 1 diabetes, long before the appearance of clinical symptoms. This could lead to better prediction and prevention of long-term complications of the disease.

The researchers found that young type 1 diabetics with good blood sugar control had similar saliva protein profiles to non-diabetics. In contrast, young people with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes showed a very different saliva protein profile.

Researchers envision that in the near future diagnosis and monitoring of therapeutic strategies in diabetes will be possible with only a drop of saliva, through ultra-sensitive and highly specific techniques such as the Multiple Reaction Monitoring as well as real-time, non-invasive, salivary glucose monitoring devices.