Saliva Test Advances

George’s fiancée, Susan, has made us all think twice about licking the envelope this time of year, victimized by her own saliva and a toxic adhesive in the classic Seinfeld scene. Saliva tests for drug addiction are much safer than Costanza’s envelopes, but are they accurate? Several insurers say there are a high number of false positive results with these tests, particularly in smokers. These tests are likely to be scrutinized more in the coming years by insurers as they attempt to help in drug detection but do so affordably. Saliva tests can help with detecting very recent abuse, but they only detect abuse for a few days.

These kinds of saliva tests can also be used to help diagnose Autism in children.

Research by Upstate Medical University, Quadrant Biosciences and Penn State College of Medicine was awarded a patent for a saliva-based, multiomic autism diagnostic test. The test is supposed to “aid” in diagnosis, not be the only tool clinicians use to help parents. The idea is the test can differentiate people with autism from those with typical developmental delays. The test measures microRNA and microbiome levels in saliva.