This study assesses the efficacy of photobiomodulation therapy (830 nm) for myalgia treatment of masticatory muscles. Sixty patients with muscular myalgia were selected and randomly allocated into 2 groups (n=30): Group A comprised patients given a placebo (control), and Group B consisted of those undergoing photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT). PBMT and placebo were applied bilaterally to specific points on the masseter and temporal muscles. Referred pain elicited by palpation and maximum mouth opening were measured before (EV1) and after (EV2) the treatments. The data were analyzed using statistical tests, considering a significance level of 5%. No significant differences in range were observed for active or passive mouth opening (p ≥ 0.05). Comparing the final outcomes (EV1-EV2) of both treatments, statistical significance was verified for total pain in the right masseter muscle (p = 0.001) and total pain (p = 0.005). In EV2, significant differences in pain reported with palpation were found between Groups A and B for the following: left posterior temporal muscle (p = 0.025), left superior masseter muscle (p = 0.036), inferior masseter muscle (p = 0.021), total pain (left side) (p = 0.009), total masseter muscle (left side) (p = 0.014), total temporal (left side) (p = 0.024), and total pain (p = 0.035). We concluded that PBMT (830 nm) reduces pain in algic points, but does not influence the extent of mouth opening in patients with myalgia.

Sjögren's Syndrome (SS) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune exocrinopathy, and although, the role of metabolism in the autoimmune responses has been discussed in diseases such as lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and scleroderma. There is a lack of information regarding the metabolic implications of SS. Considering that the disease affects primarily salivary glands; the aim of this study is to evaluate the metabolic changes in the salivary glands' microenvironment using a targeted metabolomics approach. The saliva from 10 patients diagnosed with SS by the American-European consensus and 10 healthy volunteers was analyzed in an Ultra-high Performance Liquid Chromatograph Coupled Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-MS). The results showed an increased concentration in SS of metabolites involved in oxidative stress such as lactate, alanine and malate, and amino acids involved in the growth and proliferation of T-cells, such as arginine, leucine valine and isoleucine. These results revealed that is possible to differentiate the metabolic profile of SS and healthy individuals using a small amount of saliva, which in its turn may reflect the cellular changes observed in the microenvironments of damaged salivary glands from these patients.

Background: The development of personalized medicine using high-throughput methods, such as metabolomics profiling, in discovering and validating biomarkers, may play a key role in the development of new and non-invasive methods for diagnosis and understanding of lupus nephritis (LN). Objectives: The aim of this systematic review was to present the current status of metabolomics discovery of biomarkers applied to diagnosing, staging, understanding and treating LN. Methods: The review was made according to PRISMA guidelines, searching for keywords associated to “Lupus”, “Lupus nephritis”, “Metabolomics” and their variants, with no language restriction, in PUBMED, MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. Full-texts and primary studies in humans including the topics of lupus erythematosus and/or lupus nephritis and used metabolomics in urine and serum as a research method, were included and data analysis was performed individually. Results: The search revealed multiple candidates for the diagnosis, staging and prognosis of lupus nephritis, such as citrate, acetate, N-acetyl glycoproteins and various amino acids, as their level in the biofluids of LN patients found in the studies are consistent with the known pathophysiology of LN and inflammatory processes. Conclusions: The study of metabolomics associated with LN still needs further investigation concerning metabolic pathways and pathogeny. As the community building the databases for the research and annotation of metabolites grow, the use of serum, urine, and saliva in metabolomic profiling, may become a potential non-invasive method in translational medicine studies.