Evaluation of Epstein-Barr virus DNA methylation and load in saliva in the management of individuals at high risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Zheng et al.
The finding, in our words
In people at high risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, saliva showed decreased EBV load and increased EBV DNA methylation compared with controls, and a stepwise strategy that adds saliva testing to serum EBV antibodies improved triage efficiency.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
A saliva-derived transcriptomic signature using support vector machine learning detected gastric cancer with an AUC of 0.87, sensitivity of 79% and specificity of 70%. Tissue-based gene expression models performed poorly when applied to saliva, indicating that saliva-specific biomarker panels are needed for effective non-invasive gastric cancer screening.
A coffee-ring biosensor detected sepsis, COVID-19 and cancer proteins from self-collected saliva down to 3 pg/ml within 12 minutes, achieving sensitivity more than 100-fold higher than lateral flow assays. The system uses a smartphone camera and AI analysis, providing a rapid, affordable platform for decentralised protein diagnostics.
The study found that the Oragene OG-600 receptacle provided the highest concentration of salivary DNA, including short fragments suitable for analysis, and successfully detected HPV DNA from patient saliva. This matters for decentralised sampling as it supports the use of a standardised, self-collection device for non-invasive cancer biomarker detection.
Mass spectrometry identified SARS-CoV-2 proteins in all self-collected saliva samples from people with COVID-19, while rRT-PCR detected viral RNA in only 57 per cent of the same samples, indicating that proteomic analysis may offer greater sensitivity for diagnosis and monitoring, especially in cases with low viral load.
Vaccine-induced HPV antibodies from cervicovaginal secretions were detectable in first-void urine and correlated with serum levels, so one self-collected urine sample can monitor both HPV infection and immunogenicity without a blood draw; the authors see promise for decentralised follow-up after vaccination.