Saliva As a Diagnostic Tool in Covid 19 Detection, A Review

Background and Aim: Delayed detection of SARS-CoV-2 has been a major hindrance in curbing the current COVID-19 pandemic. Wide spread testing is the most practical way out of the current crisis. The current gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis is real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) detection of SARS-CoV-2 from nasopharyngeal swabs. However, collecting nasopharyngeal swabs causes discomfort to patients due to the procedure’s invasiveness, limiting compliance for repeat testing, and the procedure presents a considerable risk to healthcare workers. Therefore, developing rapid and convenient ways of testing for COVID-19 will greatly enhance the capacity of testing. Alternatively, saliva is a promising candidate for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics. The purpose of this review is to provide an update and review of the composition of the latest research and to compare the various methods and techniques developed for the diagnosis of COVID-19 by saliva. Material and Methods: In this review article, data were collected by searching articles which were published between year 2019 and 2021 in domestic and foreign journals, using databases such as: PubMed, PubMed Central, Medline, EBSCO, Google Scholar and Embase with keywords: Saliva, Covid_19, Covid_19 Test, Salivary Test. Among the relevant authorities, the articles that were cited many times and were more up to date, were selected. Conclusion: that saliva is an acceptable alternative source for detecting SARS-CoV-2.  It imposes the development ofnew strategies for COVID-19 diagnosis; however, despite the colossal demand for novel diagnostic platforms with non-invasive and self-collection samples of COVID-19, the accuracy of salivary SARS-CoV-2 platforms are still not well- elucidated.