Approved research

Salivary biomarkers of a healthy diet and development of type 2 diabetes

Lay summary

The composition of saliva is influenced by diet quality and diversity. There is a need for biomarkers that can be used to evaluate risk of dietary related disease. The longer term objective of our research is to identify and validate salivary biomarkers indicative of healthy dietary choices (adoption of a Mediterranean diet) with a positive long-term health outcome (protection against type 2 diabetes) throughout adult life. The present project aims to study the UKBiobank database which will be used to assess the relationship between adoption of a Mediterranean diet and a self-reported diagnosis of type2 diabetes. The overall aim of UK Biobank is to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of serious and life-threatening illnesses ? including cancer, heart diseases, stroke, diabetes. The proposed collaborative study involves researchers from France, Spain and UK and aims to study the link between healthy dietary choices (adoption of a Mediterranean diet) and the development of type-2 diabetes. The project will potentially yield results that will enable a future study of saliva samples from UKBiobank and can be used to inform dietary choices and guidance with a view to preventing disease development. Dietary information on UK Biobank subjects will be reviewed and cohorts of subjects formed according to adherence/ non-adherence to a Mediterranean type diet. The incidence of self-reported type-2 diabetes according to the UK Biobank baseline questionnaire will be determined in these cohorts. The results will help clarify the relationship between diet and type-2 diabetes. Data from the cohort of UK Biobank subjects from whom saliva was collected will be reviewed.