Saliva of patients affected by salivary gland tumour: An NMR metabolomics analysis

In the present work, we present a NMR-based metabolomic study of the saliva of patients suffering from salivary gland tumours. Analysis of data was done using a combined approach based on PRICONA quantitative analysis and statistical multivariate analysis. Interestingly, both the analytical methods indicate that individuals affected by parotid tumour have a characteristic metabolomic profile characterized by abnormalities in the concentration of several aminoacids. Among these the most significant are those relative to Alanine and Leucine suggestive of an alteration in the metabolic pathways of glycogenic aminoacids and ketone bodies. Our data, describing the preliminary metabolomics fingerprint of parotid tumour, are consistent with the recent view that oncogenic signalling corresponds to alteration in the metabolism of nutrient pull (Vander Heiden et al., 2009), rather than to a single metabolite.