Spit Tests Could Replace Blood and Urine Samples

Saliva is a window into the bloodstream. A saliva sample for narcotics testing can often give a more accurate representation of what’s really going in the body than urine. Some drugs, like cocaine, can appear in the saliva sample less susceptible to tampering than the “go off by you and put some in a cup” method. Collecting saliva is painless, less invasive and easier.
Many of the molecules and proteins found in blood are also found in saliva. Spit tests might one day spot cancer or identify drug use.
Researchers are developing a portable device that can screen for the presence of a variety of disease-causing microorganisms simultaneously. They envision a credit-card-sized cassette that uses a patient’s saliva sample to detect the DNA and other telltale molecules of viruses and bacteria. The cassette would then be inserted into a display device, or the information could be sent wirelessly to an off-site computer for analysis.
Laboratory experiments have shown the technique to be successful in detecting the presence of the HIV virus and of another bacterium closely related to anthrax. They believe cassettes could be made to test for specific groups of bacteria and viruses. A cassette could test for multiple-sexually transmitted disease at once. Another quickly determines if a patient’s respiratory problems are due to a bacterial or viral infection.
Saliva test may one day be used as a diagnostic tool for certain diseases like cancer. They are working to identify all of the proteins secreted in saliva, and they hope to one day use this information to screen for specific diseases.
The researchers’ goal is to identify ten high-impact diseases using salivary proteins by 2007-2008. Some of 3,000 salivary proteins have been identified to date. Of these, 200 are core proteins found in the saliva of everyone, and four have been linked to oral cancer.

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