Development of an alternative saliva test for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 using TRIzol: Adapting to countries with lower incomes looking for a large-scale detection program
Miranda-Ortiz et al.
The finding, in our words
Saliva self-collection with TRIzol extraction matched nasopharyngeal swab performance for SARS-CoV-2 detection while enabling room-temperature storage without specialised tubes, offering a lower-cost decentralised option suitable for large-scale screening programmes.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
A two‑tier decentralised testing strategy using self‑collected saliva pools detected SARS‑CoV‑2 with higher sensitivity than a commercial IVD RT‑qPCR test and enabled identification of asymptomatic cases at lower cost.
This study validated a low-cost 3D-printed smartphone attachment and paper sensor for measuring glucose, uric acid and cholesterol in saliva, demonstrating high correlation with standard ELISA results in a small clinical cohort. The authors suggest this platform offers a scalable solution for decentralised diabetes management by balancing sensitivity with affordability.
Yang et al., Biosensors & bioelectronics (paywalled) · source ↗
Oral sponge saliva RT-PCR achieved 95% sensitivity and 95% specificity compared with nasopharyngeal swabs in 3,488 symptomatic and asymptomatic adults, while buccal swab performance varied with infection history and symptoms. The rapid antigen test showed 66.9% sensitivity overall, increasing to 97% in high viral load samples. Oral sponge collection permits self-sampling without laboratory pre-analytical steps, offering a robust method for decentralised SARS-CoV-2 screening.
Althaus et al., BMC infectious diseases · source ↗
Saliva-based RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 achieved 100 per cent sensitivity and 97 per cent specificity against nasopharyngeal swabs, while rapid antigen testing on saliva showed comparable performance and detected 97 per cent of infectious cases with cycle threshold values of 30 or below. This supports saliva self-collection as an accurate, practical option for decentralised COVID-19 screening.
Sultana et al., Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease (paywalled) · source ↗
In confirmed COVID-19 patients, direct RT-PCR on self-collected raw saliva detected all cases (100% sensitivity) with 94.3% concordance to nasopharyngeal swabs. Guanidine-based and guanidine-free inactivators reduced sensitivity to 65.9% and 82.9% respectively. Raw saliva offers a reliable patient-centric alternative for decentralised SARS-CoV-2 testing without sample treatment.
Katsuno et al., Journal of virological methods (paywalled) · source ↗