CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Mucositis is an acute toxic effect, related to chemotherapy treatment that affects normal cells, mainly in the oral mucose. In the pathogenesis of this condition is involved oxidative stress (OS), by the generation of reactive oxygen species. It is known that anthocyanins (AC), that are commonly found in fruits and vegetables, have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic properties, and have demonstrated a clinical-morphological improvement of skin lesions in patients treated with this compound. The salivary markers of OS, such as the product of lipid peroxidation called malonaldehyde (MDA), could be used to evaluate the evolution of mucositis in patients receiving chemotherapy and treated with AC. The main objective of our work was to determine MDA in saliva from patients in chemotherapy and in healthy individuals, using a method based on the reaction with thiobarbituric acid (TBARS). In addition, the antioxidant effect of anthocyanins in oral epithelial cells was evaluated. We analyzed 19 samples from healthy individuals and 14 samples from patients before and after chemotherapy and after topical treatment with AC. No significant differences were found between baseline MDA values of healthy people and patients on chemotherapy (0.25 ± 0.05 vs. 0.25 ± 0.06). However, in the follow-up of the patients we observed that there was a variation in the levels of MDA throughout the treatment, with an increase in its concentration after chemotherapy and a significant decrease with anthocyanins treatment. Conclusion: our results suggest that saliva sampling is simple, non-invasive and safe. The determination of MDA in saliva would be beneficial for the surveillance of diseases and health in general