Saliva—Friend and Foe in the COVID-19 Outbreak

• Main Authors: Pingping Han, Sašo Ivanovski
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-05-01
• Series: Diagnostics
• Subjects: COVID-19; salivary diagnostics; salivary bioaerosols transmission
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/10/5/290

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become a global ongoing pandemic. Timely, accurate and non-invasive SARS-CoV-2 detection in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, as well as determination of their immune status, will facilitate effective large-scale pandemic control measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Saliva is a biofluid whose anatomical source and location is of particularly strategic relevance to COVID-19 transmission and monitoring. This review focuses on the role of saliva as both a foe (a common mode of viral transmission via salivary droplets and potentially aerosols) and a friend (as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for viral detection and immune status surveillance) in combating COVID-19.