Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA.
Department of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06510, USA.
BMC Infect Dis. 2022 Mar 25;22(1):284. doi: 10.1186/s12879-022-07285-7.
There is an urgent need to expand testing for SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens as the global community struggles to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Current diagnostic methods can be affected by supply chain bottlenecks and require the assistance of medical professionals, impeding the implementation of large-scale testing. Self-collection of saliva may solve these problems, as it can be completed without specialized training and uses generic materials.
We observed 30 individuals who self-collected saliva using four different collection devices and analyzed their feedback. Two of these devices, a funnel and bulb pipette, were used to evaluate at-home saliva collection by 60 individuals. SARS-CoV-2-spiked saliva samples were subjected to temperature cycles designed to simulate the conditions the samples might be exposed to during the summer and winter seasons and sensitivity of detection was evaluated.
All devices enabled the safe, unsupervised self-collection of saliva. The quantity and quality of the samples received were acceptable for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing, as determined by human RNase P detection. There was no significant difference in SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid gene (N1) detection between the freshly spiked samples and those incubated with the summer and winter profiles.
We demonstrate inexpensive, generic, buffer free collection devices suitable for unsupervised and home saliva self-collection.
全球社会正在努力控制 COVID-19 大流行，因此迫切需要扩大对 SARS-CoV-2 和其他呼吸道病原体的检测。目前的诊断方法可能受到供应链瓶颈的影响，并且需要医疗专业人员的协助，这阻碍了大规模检测的实施。自我采集唾液可能会解决这些问题，因为它无需专门培训即可完成，并且使用通用材料。
我们观察了 30 名使用四种不同采集装置自行采集唾液的个体，并分析了他们的反馈。其中两个装置，即漏斗和球管移液器，用于由 60 名个体评估家庭唾液采集。对 SARS-CoV-2 加标唾液样本进行温度循环处理，以模拟样本在夏季和冬季可能暴露的条件，并评估检测的灵敏度。
所有装置均能安全、无人监督地采集唾液。通过人 RNase P 检测，所收到的样本的数量和质量均适合 SARS-CoV-2 诊断测试。新鲜加标的样本与经过夏季和冬季处理的样本在 SARS-CoV-2 核衣壳基因（N1）检测方面没有显著差异。
我们证明了廉价、通用、无缓冲液的采集装置适用于无人监督和家庭自我采集唾液。
