Saliva as a non-invasive approach to monitoring immune status has the benefits of increasing participant compliance as well as the speed of sampling anywhere, anytime.

CARLSBAD, Calif. (PRWEB) May 13, 2020

Now in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, verification of the integrity of public surveillance and testing is critical. Saliva and oral fluids are increasingly seen as minimally invasive alternatives to traditional biospecimens (e.g., nasal swabs, blood sampling). Saliva can be easily and safely self-collected while social distancing or stay-at-home restrictions are in place, and thus saliva/oral fluid sampling provides an opportunity for large-scale community surveillance. As any pandemic evolves, community-based seroprevalence studies to determine who has been and who has not been exposed is of the utmost importance. Tests that make these determinations must be scalable at a population level and have the lowest possible rates of false positives and negatives.

Recently, Salimetrics announced two new salivary assay kits to be employed when oral fluid/saliva specimens are used for this purpose - the Salivary Total Human IgG ELISA Kit (Cat. No. 1-4502) and the Salivary Total Human IgM ELISA Kit (Cat. No. 1-4002). Both assays come in a 96-well microtiter plate format, require low sample volumes, are fast, and amenable to high throughput batch processing. These assays assure the quality of oral fluid/saliva samples and therefore improve specificity and sensitivity of corresponding pathogen-specific serological assays. Specifically, these assay tools minimize false negative determinations in pathogen-specific serological assays by excluding samples that have insufficient total antibody. Researchers can safely collect samples using SalivaBios FDA listed oral fluid/saliva collection devices that have been optimized for ease of collection from participants as well as downstream processing of samples in the lab.

The utility of Salimetrics Human Total IgG and Total IgM Assay Kits is realized when investigating the immune status of an individual to a specific pathogen by assessing IgG or investigating recent pathogen exposure in an outbreak situation by assessing IgM. Since IgG/IgM levels vary between individuals and individual samples, and the primary source of these antibodies is serum, researchers must qualify an oral fluid sample for total IgG/IgM to determine if enough IgG/IgM is present to further qualify a positive or negative disease target, says Steve Granger, Ph.D., Salimetrics CSO. These assays can be utilized as companion tests with disease-specific target assays (such as COVID-19) on the same sample. By determining the disease-specific antibodies present in relation to the total IgG/IgM, researchers can form reliable thresholds to indicate positive or negative results.

In saliva, IgG/IgM passively diffuses through the gingival crevicular epithelium, where samples can be conveniently collected. Since IgG/IgM in saliva is bioidentical to its serum counterparts, researchers will find it a valuable alternative to blood sampling. Saliva as a non-invasive approach to monitoring immune status has the benefits of increasing participant compliance as well as the speed of sampling anywhere, anytime, says Granger. This can be advantageous during an epidemic, natural disaster, or for general epidemiological research.

Salimetrics continues to be a key partner in bringing best-in-class solutions to salivary bioscience research. By using Salimetrics, researchers can find and implement solutions where the full potential of salivary measures have yet to be realized. To learn more about the new Salivary Total Human IgG and IgM Assay Kits, as well as the available FDA listed oral fluid/saliva collection devices, researchers can visit the Salimetrics Website, or contact researcher support to integrate total salivary IgG/IgM into their current or future research study.

About SalimetricsSalimetrics assay kits and CLIA-certified testing services are used to measure salivary analytes related to stress, behavior and development, inflammation, sleep, reproduction, health and immune function. Founded in 1998 by Douglas A. Granger, Ph.D., Salimetrics, LLC support CROs, pharmaceuticals, academic researchers and the immunodiagnostic industry around the world with innovative immunoassay products, non-invasive saliva collection methods, and laboratory testing services.

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