Restoring saliva production and quality: Olfactory stimulation & synthetic peptides

Saliva is essential for oral health, but factors such as medication, chemotherapy, and systemic diseases can reduce saliva production, leading to chronic dry mouth. This thesis focused on restoring both the quantity and quality of saliva. In a clinical study, healthy participants were exposed to volatiles from mastic resin and α-pinene, while patients with chronic dry mouth were exposed only to mastic resin, significantly increasing saliva secretion. In patients the saliva quality also increased after exposure to mastic resin volatiles as could be deduced from increased spinnbarkeit, pH, sodium and MUC5B concentrations. Additionally, synthetic peptides were developed to specifically bind MUC5B using the phage display technique. The presence of peptide MBP12 stabilized the spinnbarkeit of saliva in vitro. Epitope characterization revealed that MBP12 bound to the galactose residue of MUC5B. These findings suggest that scent stimuli of mastic resin and MUC5B binding peptides are promising, non-invasive methods for treating chronic dry mouth.