2021 · Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · open access
Comparison of Red-Complex Bacteria Between Saliva and Subgingival Plaque of Periodontitis Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Jiang et al.
The finding, in our words
In a meta-analysis of 17 studies, detection frequencies and relative abundances of red-complex periodontal bacteria were significantly lower in saliva than in subgingival plaque. Although salivary levels positively correlated with plaque levels, single-timepoint saliva sampling cannot currently substitute for subgingival plaque in microbiological diagnosis.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
Participants preferred the Omnigene and Zymo oral swabs for comfort and ease of use, whilst the Omnigene device yielded the highest median bacterial DNA concentration compared to the other devices. The results indicate that the choice of self-collection device impacts both patient acceptability and DNA yield for oral microbiome analysis.
Rooney et al., Journal of microbiological methods (paywalled) · source ↗
Saliva samples collected using the OMNIgene ORAL device and oral wash samples remain stable for microbiome diversity and relative abundance analyses for up to five years when stored at -80°C. This supports the use of these self-collection methods for long-term prospective biobanking and decentralised clinical studies.
Slack et al., Microbiology spectrum (paywalled) · source ↗
In a one-week virtual home clinic with 134 participants, 86 per cent returned saliva and 84 per cent returned stool, and most components were feasible and acceptable despite device and logistical challenges. This supports decentralised, patient-centric self-collection of non-blood biospecimens for research.
Self-collected oral and stool samples revealed distinct microbiome compositions in patients with endometriosis compared to controls, with Fusobacterium enrichment specifically observed in oral samples from moderate to severe cases. These results support the feasibility of decentralised self-collection for non-invasive biomarker screening in reproductive health.
Hicks et al., BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · source ↗
This study found that a decontamination pipeline using metagenome-assembled genomes improves the accuracy of variant calling from saliva samples, showing superior concordance with blood-derived results compared to conventional methods. These results validate the potential of self-collected oral samples for accurate personal genotyping.