Prototype of a salivary assay for quantification of two biomarkers for in vitro diagnosis of endometriosis

Abstract

Endometriosis is a very frequent disease in the female gender and is characterized by the presence of endometrial structures outside the uterine cavity. The lack of a reliable non-invasive diagnostic test together with the fact that the symptoms of this pathology are often very non-specific, are responsible for the delay in the definitive diagnosis of this disease. Recently, through a proteomics approach, our research group has identified two potential diagnostic markers for endometriosis in serum (Zn-alpha2-glycoprotein and complement C3 precursor). In this article, we have defined the experimental conditions of a simple ELISA assay for rapid quantification of these two biomarkers in the saliva of patients with endometriosis. Finally, preliminary experiments on a small cohort of patients and controls have confirmed the potential diagnostic value of this assay.