The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Dentistry has received a $2.8 million grant to conduct clinical trials of a new diagnostic test for Sjögren's syndrome.
The grant, from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, will support multicenter trials of the diagnostic test, which uses patients' saliva. The noninvasive test yields a diagnosis within minutes, rather than the weeks currently required when using blood or other tissue samples, according to the dental school.
The project will be led by Dr. David Wong, the associate dean for research and the Felix and Mildred Yip Endowed Professor in Dentistry at the UCLA School of Dentistry. Dr. Wong and his colleagues have been conducting research on using saliva as a diagnostic tool for biomarkers of oral cancer, early-stage pancreatic cancer, and other maladies for several years.
While much is known about the symptoms of Sjögren's, the disease is complex and poorly understood, according to Dr. Wong. In some cases, it can take more than six years to be diagnosed.
Clinical trials will be conducted at three major rheumatology centers: University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, the University of Minnesota, and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. Participating centers will enroll patients exhibiting symptoms of dry eye and dry mouth, and will perform the saliva biomarker assay based on a panel of salivary biomarkers developed at UCLA. Researchers will benchmark the outcome with the current clinical practice of six clinical tests, including serology and a lip biopsy, to diagnose Sjögren's syndrome.
