ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oral Health
Sec. Oral Epidemiology
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1627681
Phospho-tau 181 is enhanced in saliva and plasma of edentulous patients: a first sign for dementia?
Provisionally accepted
- Medical University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
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Objectives: There is evidence that periodontitis can enhance the progression of Alzheimer´s disease (AD). The biomarkers beta-amyloid (40 and 42), total tau and phospho-tau181 (pTau181) in cerebrospinal fluid helps to diagnose AD. Saliva is an easy to collect fluid and we aim to analyze these biomarkers in patiens with periodontitis. Subjects and Methods: Four groups of individuals were included: patients with healthy tooth, with mild and severe periodontal diseases and edentulous patients. These 4 biomarkers were analyzed in saliva using Lumipulse technology, and as a control also cortisol, transferrin and interleukin-6 were measured. Patients underwent a neuropsychological assessment and plasma pTau181 was analyzed. Results: No changes were seen for salivary beta-amyloid and total tau, however, salivary pTau181 was significantly increased in the edentulous patients. This was accompanied by enhanced plasma pTau181 levels. Conclusion: Our data show that pTau181 was significantly higher in saliva and plasma of edentulous patients and we suggest that the loss of teeth may be linked to the progression of dementia. Consultation of dentists may be of importance to find risk factors for progression of dementia and salivary pTau181 could be a new associative marker.
Keywords: Saliva, phospho-tau-181, Alzheimers disease, Edentulous, Periodontitis, biomarker, diagnosis
Received: 13 May 2025; Accepted: 04 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zürcher, Defrancesco and Humpel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Christian Humpel, Medical University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
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