Poster Session 04 Program Schedule
02/15/2024
12:00 pm - 01:15 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)
Poster Session 04: Neuroimaging | Neurostimulation/Neuromodulation | Teleneuropsychology/Technology
Final Abstract #21
Salivary Biomarkers and Stress: A Systematic Review
Heewon Choi, Stuyvesant Highschool, New York City, United States
Paul Lewis, Columbia University, New York City, United States
Category: Cognitive Neuroscience
Keyword 1: chronic stress
Keyword 2: neuropsychiatry
Objective:
Determining if concentrations of salivary biomarkers change differently in response to the same variables. The reason for saliva and not another biological medium like blood is that practically, obtaining samples of saliva is non-invasive and can be done quickly. Due to the growing interest in salivary biomarkers' relationship to stress, an assessment of the detection methods and conditions of past studies will be informative, especially for future studies associated with this area of study.
Participants and Methods:
PRISMA guidelines were used to explore current methodologies in detecting salivary biomarkers that may indicate varying levels of stress. When selecting articles, a search through multiple databases (Pub Med, Google Scholar) was used with combinations and iterations of saliva, stress, anxiety, biomarker, alpha-amylase, cortisol, detection, chronic stress, and acute stress as the keywords. Using the initial selection of articles, those that were considered eligible needed to fulfill the following criteria: (1) Proper research methodology, (2) data that found a significant correlation between induced stress and an increase in salivary biomarkers (cortisol, alpha-amylase, microRNA), and (3) Use of a varied group of participants for data collection. To stay in line with this review’s purpose, studies that tackled seemingly detached topics like health complications were considered depending on the topic’s relevance to the effects of stress on levels of salivary biomarkers.
Results:
A total of 7 articles met the eligibility criteria and were used in this systematic review. After the design of the study was properly assessed, it was permitted to undergo the CASP quality assessment, a process meant to evaluate a variety of factors like biases that may affect the quality of the study. Overall, techniques like massages and social stress tests used to either induce or reduce stress were moderately associated with changes in concentrations of salivary biomarkers. Stress-related circumstances, both natural and induced, over a short period of time, had stronger associations with changes in salivary alpha-amylase levels than situations conducted over longer periods of time. Changes in salivary cortisol levels had more of an association with studies conducted over longer periods of time.
Conclusions:
The type of stress (short-term, chronic) has an effect on the changes in salivary biomarker concentrations and may play a significant role in the activation of biological pathways associated with the salivary biomarkers alpha-amylase and cortisol. Although additional research must be done to figure out which detection methods are accurate and feasible within the test-kit market, researchers can now utilize the association between different types of stress and their associated biomarkers.
| 
