I think I read that about 6% of the population suffers
from
depression. A saliva diagnostic that could tell a
physician
which of three kinds of antidepressants would be most
effective would greatly benefit about 120 million people
(6% of 2 billion).
The three antidepressants I am thinking
of are 1)
deprenyl
2) wellbutrin 3) zoloft/SSRI
Being able to determine which of these the person is
most
likely to respond to would be an in-demand financially
valuable test that relieves suffering. Also of benefit is
that
treating the young could create more person-years of
benefit.
Use lasers to "abrade" the tongue or oral mucosa. Then,
mouth-swish antibodies linked to fluorescent molecules.
I may have read that taste buds or the oral epithelium
regenerates after 7 days. Aiming a laser at someone’s
tongue should rapidly heal.
So, you could zap a taste bud with a laser to expose the
neurons of the taste bud nerve. Then, have a different
frequency of laser activate the fluorescent antibodies
specific to the neuron if there were something of
interest
about the chemistry of the neuron for diagnostic
purposes.
It is possible that the cytochemistry of a neuron (or
mouth
tissue in general) could be linked (correlated) to the
effectiveness of antidepressant drugs or other medical
things.
Using this combined approach you can develop a laser
zap
of tongue diagnostic which could apply to many drugs.
Another possibility is to "abrade" the oral mucosa with a
laser then provide a really protein rich saliva sample
with
better diagnostic abilities.