A saliva test could help to predict which COVID-19 patients are more likely to suffer severe cases of the virus, according to a British study.
The research by the University of Surrey found amino acids in saliva are the key and could enable hospitals to more easily triage patients effectively.
The tests currently used for COVID cannot predict severity. The experimental study found that amino acids changed significantly between saliva samples in patients with low and high severity of COVID-19.
Writing in PLOS ONE, the team says this makes the metabolite a promising candidate for a future test that could identify patients who need the most urgent care.
Study co-leader Katie Longman said: "It is unlikely that we will completely eradicate this awful disease from our lives, so it remains crucial that we develop tools and processes to detect COVID-19 better and, hopefully, predict how it will impact different patients differently.
"Our experimental study has found that this non-invasive method of simply collecting someone’s saliva can accurately determine whether someone is going to develop a severe case of COVID-19, potentially supporting the prioritisation of swift medical interventions in the future."
The team collected saliva samples from 75 individuals in a hospital setting, all of whom were suspected of having COVID-19. After a PCR test, 47 were found to be positive and of these, 10 were classed as showing high severity COVID-19, while 34 were classed as presenting with low severity COVID-19. Three of the samples lacked sufficient clinical information for severity scoring.
Study co-leader Cecile Frampas said: “We were really surprised that saliva could be so informative. A non-invasive way of determining which patients need treatment could be really useful in healthcare settings in the future.”
Frampas CF, Longman K, Spick M, Untargeted saliva metabolomics by liquid chromatography-Mass spectrometry reveals markers of COVID-19 severity. PLOS ONE 22 September 2022
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