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Identification of the Major Protein Components of Human and Cow Saliva

Akula, Srinivas ; Welinder, Charlotte LU ; Fu, Zhirong ; Olsson, Anna Karin and Hellman, Lars (2023) In International Journal of Molecular Sciences 24(23).
Abstract

Cows produce saliva in very large quantities to lubricate and facilitate food processing. Estimates indicate an amount of 50–150 L per day. Human saliva has previously been found to contain numerous antibacterial components, such as lysozyme, histatins, members of the S-100 family and lactoferrin, to limit pathogen colonization. Cows depend on a complex microbial community in their digestive system for food digestion. Our aim here was to analyze how this would influence the content of their saliva. We therefore sampled saliva from five humans and both nose secretions and saliva from six cows and separated the saliva on SDS-PAGE gradient gels and analyzed the major protein bands with LC-MS/MS. The cow saliva was found to be dominated by... (More)

Cows produce saliva in very large quantities to lubricate and facilitate food processing. Estimates indicate an amount of 50–150 L per day. Human saliva has previously been found to contain numerous antibacterial components, such as lysozyme, histatins, members of the S-100 family and lactoferrin, to limit pathogen colonization. Cows depend on a complex microbial community in their digestive system for food digestion. Our aim here was to analyze how this would influence the content of their saliva. We therefore sampled saliva from five humans and both nose secretions and saliva from six cows and separated the saliva on SDS-PAGE gradient gels and analyzed the major protein bands with LC-MS/MS. The cow saliva was found to be dominated by a few major proteins only, carbonic anhydrase 6, a pH-stabilizing enzyme and the short palate, lung and nasal epithelium carcinoma-associated protein 2A (SPLUNC2A), also named bovine salivary protein 30 kDa (BSP30) or BPIFA2B. This latter protein has been proposed to play a role in local antibacterial response by binding bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) and inhibiting bacterial growth but may instead, according to more recent data, primarily have surfactant activity. Numerous peptide fragments of mucin-5B were also detected in different regions of the gel in the MS analysis. Interestingly, no major band on gel was detected representing any of the antibacterial proteins, indicating that cows may produce them at very low levels that do not harm the microbial flora of their digestive system. The nose secretions of the cows primarily contained the odorant protein, a protein thought to be involved in enhancing the sense of smell of the olfactory receptors and the possibility of quickly sensing potential poisonous food components. High levels of secretory IgA were also found in one sample of cow mouth drippings, indicating a strong upregulation during an infection. The human saliva was more complex, containing secretory IgA, amylase, carbonic anhydrase 6, lysozyme, histatins and a number of other less abundant proteins, indicating a major difference to the saliva of cows that show very low levels of antibacterial components, most likely to not harm the microbial flora of the rumen.

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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
BSP30, IgA, mucin, odorant protein, PIGR, saliva
in
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
volume
24
issue
23
article number
16838
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • pmid:38069163
  • scopus:85179357544
ISSN
1661-6596
DOI
10.3390/ijms242316838
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
812745ee-244d-48ff-80a1-66d610e24cf5
date added to LUP
2024-01-04 11:21:39
date last changed
2024-04-19 07:38:19
@article{812745ee-244d-48ff-80a1-66d610e24cf5,
  abstract     = {{<p>Cows produce saliva in very large quantities to lubricate and facilitate food processing. Estimates indicate an amount of 50–150 L per day. Human saliva has previously been found to contain numerous antibacterial components, such as lysozyme, histatins, members of the S-100 family and lactoferrin, to limit pathogen colonization. Cows depend on a complex microbial community in their digestive system for food digestion. Our aim here was to analyze how this would influence the content of their saliva. We therefore sampled saliva from five humans and both nose secretions and saliva from six cows and separated the saliva on SDS-PAGE gradient gels and analyzed the major protein bands with LC-MS/MS. The cow saliva was found to be dominated by a few major proteins only, carbonic anhydrase 6, a pH-stabilizing enzyme and the short palate, lung and nasal epithelium carcinoma-associated protein 2A (SPLUNC2A), also named bovine salivary protein 30 kDa (BSP30) or BPIFA2B. This latter protein has been proposed to play a role in local antibacterial response by binding bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) and inhibiting bacterial growth but may instead, according to more recent data, primarily have surfactant activity. Numerous peptide fragments of mucin-5B were also detected in different regions of the gel in the MS analysis. Interestingly, no major band on gel was detected representing any of the antibacterial proteins, indicating that cows may produce them at very low levels that do not harm the microbial flora of their digestive system. The nose secretions of the cows primarily contained the odorant protein, a protein thought to be involved in enhancing the sense of smell of the olfactory receptors and the possibility of quickly sensing potential poisonous food components. High levels of secretory IgA were also found in one sample of cow mouth drippings, indicating a strong upregulation during an infection. The human saliva was more complex, containing secretory IgA, amylase, carbonic anhydrase 6, lysozyme, histatins and a number of other less abundant proteins, indicating a major difference to the saliva of cows that show very low levels of antibacterial components, most likely to not harm the microbial flora of the rumen.</p>}},
  author       = {{Akula, Srinivas and Welinder, Charlotte and Fu, Zhirong and Olsson, Anna Karin and Hellman, Lars}},
  issn         = {{1661-6596}},
  keywords     = {{BSP30; IgA; mucin; odorant protein; PIGR; saliva}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{23}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{International Journal of Molecular Sciences}},
  title        = {{Identification of the Major Protein Components of Human and Cow Saliva}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms242316838}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/ijms242316838}},
  volume       = {{24}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}