Saliva in the Diagnosis of Viral Diseases
A special issue of Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915). This special issue belongs to the section "Human Virology and Viral Diseases".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 226
Special Issue Editors
Interests: HPV; HIV; viral hepatitis; virus molecular evolution; host–pathogen interaction; zoonoses
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: rapid tests for COVID-19; saliva and COVID-19 diagnosis; emerging viruses; host–pathogen interaction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Saliva has long been used as one of the main biological samples for the detection of CMV congenital infection in newborns, for the detection of HPV in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), for studies of somatic mutations or as biomarker sources (i.e., to detect miRNAs). During the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific evidence emerged indicating that molecular tests performed on saliva have diagnostic sensitivity and specificity comparable to those observed with nasopharyngeal swabs for SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection. Moreover, the presence of IgA and IgG antibodies at the mucosal level has been demonstrated to influence the progression of viral infection and the severity of clinical manifestation. Looking forward, as saliva uniquely contains both respiratory secretions and immunological components, it potentially has wide applications, ranging from clinical diagnostics to post-vaccine disease burden and immunity surveillance. Due to its easy and painless self-collection, saliva represents a suitable alternative sample in community mass screening programs and for longitudinal sampling of hospitalized individuals aimed at monitoring viral load dynamics and treatment response. Recent proteomic studies revealed that 20–30% of the salivary proteome mirrors the plasma proteome, indicating that saliva could represent a potential alternative approach for systemic disease diagnosis. In this Special Issue, we would like to offer the possibility to describe different purification methods and types of sample collection in order to optimize the use of saliva as specimens for the study of biomarkers, pathogen detection and somatic mutation linked to cancer.
Dr. Anna Rosa Garbuglia
Dr. Licia Bordi
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- saliva
- diagnosis
- pathogen detection
- immunity
- biomarkers
