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

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 degrees 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).