Measurement Of Troponin-I Levels In Saliva Of Male Recreational Runners At Rest And Following Exercise

PURPOSE: To quantify salivary levels of cardiac troponin-I (cTnI) in recreational runners at rest and following a 5-km time-trial. METHODS: Ten male recreational runners (age: 30 ± 2 years, BMI: 23.9 ± 0.5 kg/m2), most with a history of playing team-sports, such as soccer, were recruited. Based on the pre-participation screening evaluations, all participants were judged to be free of cardiovascular disease (or other limiting conditions). All participants completed the 5-km time-trial around a 400 m athletics track at the Athletics Centre. Participants were encouraged to produce a maximal effort and times were recorded manually using a stopwatch. Unstimulated saliva was collected before and immediately after the 5-km time-trial. Saliva samples were centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 15 min, and the supernatant was aliquoted. Salivary levels of cTnI were measured using an immunoassay. Each measurement was done in duplicate. Assumption of normality was estimated by the Shapiro-Wilk test. Given that all data were normally distributed, within-group differences were assessed using paired Student’s t-test. Statistical analysis was done using RStudio. RESULTS: Times to complete the 5 km for the participants were 1283 ± 56 s. Salivary levels of cTnI were significantly elevated (0.07 ± 0.03 vs. 0.28 ± 0.05 ng/mL, p < 0.001) after the 5-km time-trial. CONCLUSION: Saliva may be used as a diagnostic tool for non-invasive monitoring of the levels of cTnI without restricting the number of measurements, including under exercise conditions. The proposed point-of-care troponin-I assay utilizing saliva opens new perspectives in the development of wearable sensors (for example, mouthguard biosensor) to detect elevated concentrations of cTnI in a real-time manner without the requirement of a blood draw.ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: This research was funded by the Russian Science Foundation [grant number 23-75-01039].This research was funded by the Russian Science Foundation [grant number 23-75-01039].