The most common form of smoking in world is cigarette smoking, which is the leading cause of lung cancer, blood pressure, emphysema, bronchitis, heart attack etc1 Studies show that smoking shortens the life of person by six minutes for every single cigarette he smokes. Saliva of smokers contains some harmful substances like nicotine which is not found in non-smokers2. Smoking tobacco destroys the molecules in saliva which are useful in protecting oral region from cancer. Under normal conditions saliva acts like a protective buffer between toxin and the lining of mouth, but in smokers this buffer nature and protective enzyme becomes non functional or less functional resulting in various oral diseases3,4. In the present study, Fourier-transform infrared spectro-microscopy was used for the analysis of saliva sample for the detection of marker for smokers. The analysis included 68 individuals; the samples were classified as 23 non-smokers saliva sample, 18 samples of active smokers and 27 samples of past smokers. Samples of active smokers were collected based on time intervals (15 minutes before smoking, immediately after smoking, 30 minutes after smoking and 1 hour after smoking). Several interesting peaks have been identified as the marker for the smokers from saliva. The peaks at 737cm-1, 1659 cm-1, 2146 cm-1and 3414 cm-1 were significantly altered in the absorption level in active smokers and past smokers when compared with the non-smokers. Analysis based on the time scale suggests that about one hour time interval was required for regaining original spectral position of active smokers. Our study also indicates that the stable marker was possible for active smokers by analyzing the past smokers spectral pattern. Hence these parameters could be used as a basis for developing a spectral method in detection of active smokers using their salivary sample. Introduction Smoking is a practice in which a person most commonly uses tobacco, which is burned and smoke is inhaled5. Smoking greatly affects person's physical and mental health like it can cause wrinkles, cervical cancer, miscarriage and still birth in pregnant females, and also can cause problem with erection in males6.Hence there is an increasing need in awareness on smoking and molecular level variation which happens due to smoking should be understood by the smoker for effective awareness7.FTIR is Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. FTIR is the most powerful tool for identifying chemicals that are either organic or inorganic in nature8. It can be utilized for identifying components of unknown mixture. It can also be applied to analyze solids, liquids, and gases. In this method IR radiation is passed through the sample, some of the IR radiation is absorbed by the sample and some of it is allowed to pass through. The resulting spectrum represents the molecular absorption and transmission, creating a molecular fingerprinting of sample. FTIR Technique is applied in the field of biology for tracking the chemical changes in a live cell, studying the light induced reactions in photo biochemical systems such as rhodopsin, bacteriorhodopsin and photosynthetic reaction centres9. It is also applied to the in-vitro characterization of biomaterials. FTIR micro-spectroscopy has been used effectively to diagnose and characterize various types of disorders. Encouraging results were obtained previously in an attempt to diagnose leukemia, Gastric Inflammation, Alzheimers disease and kidney stone analysis. Applications of FTIR Spectroscopy over microbiology can give successful information in determining the strain and species difference between various microorganisms10, detection of virus infected cell and fungi in wood. Besides that, FTIR’s role in diagnostic aspects involving body fluids has been of growing importance in the last few years. In our present study, we had examined the saliva samples obtained from 23 non-smokers, 18 samples of active smokers taken 15 minutes before smoking
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