Association Between Salivary Sirtuin-1 Levels and Periodontitis

Background: Sirtuin-1 (SIRT-1) is one enzyme that has anti-oxidative, anti-inflammation and anti-apoptosis effects, and it is involved in regulating aging and in different age-associated disorders. Salivary SIRT-1 concentrations in periodontitis patients have been scarcely studied and only in studies with small sample sizes (the highest with 83 subjects). There were no differences in salivary SIRT-1 concentrations between periodontitis patients and periodontally healthy subjects in any of those studies. The aims of our study were to compare salivary SIRT-1 concentrations in subjects with periodontitis and those without it in a study with a larger sample size to determine whether there exists an association between salivary SIRT-1 concentrations and the presence of periodontitis and to analyze the potential capability of salivary SIRT-1 concentrations for periodontitis diagnosis. Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, salivary SIRT-1 concentrations were measured in subjects with and without periodontitis. To determine that variables were associated with periodontitis, a multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out. To determine the capability of salivary SIRT-1 concentrations to diagnose periodontitis, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was carried out. Results: We included 144 subjects (85 without periodontitis and 59 with periodontitis). Salivary SIRT-1 concentrations < 1.2 ng/mL were associated independently with periodontitis (OR = 2.84; 95% CI = 1.075–7.506; p = 0.04) in the regression analysis. The salivary SIRT-1 concentration showed an area under curve of 74% (95% CI = 66–86%; p < 0.001) for periodontitis diagnosis in the ROC analysis. Conclusions: Our study had the highest sample size reporting salivary SIRT-1 concentrations in patients with periodontitis. We found that low salivary SIRT-1 concentrations could be associated with the presence of periodontitis. In addition, they could play a role in periodontitis diagnosis as an adjunct to other markers given that their diagnostic capability is not high. However, given the limitations of our study, further investigations are necessary to confirm these preliminary findings.