A New Strategy for Measuring Salivary Alpha‐Amylase Activity Using Glucometer

Abstract

Alpha‐amylase is one of the most important enzymes in the saliva. It is an important biomarker for many health conditions. Saliva sampling is a non‐invasive method and is the preferred choice for sampling at point of the care and home testing. Measurement of salivary alpha‐amylase activity as a rapid test using test strips with Flavin‐dependent glucose dehydrogenases (FAD‐GDH) as glucose is the aim of the current research. FAD‐GDH is an oxygen‐independent enzyme and has a narrow substrate specificity. For this goal, starches from various sources are tested as a substrate for alpha‐amylase and chose MS‐101 starch as the best substrate, between six different starch types. Under optimal assay conditions, when hydrolyzed starch (in 20 min, 37 °C, pH = 7) reacts with FAD‐GDH enzymes that exist in test strips for 5 s glucometer can show the amount of glucose produced in samples from patient samples. This glucose value is directly correlated with the salivary alpha‐amylase activity (p‐value <0.01).