Nine-month presence of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva: a case report

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Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that mainly affects the upper airways. Approximately one third of all detected cases is asymptomatic. We report an asymptomatic individual who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 over a period of nine months. Of this individual, whole mouth saliva was tested by a novel fluorescence in situ hybridization-based assay which detects only the ‘active’ form of the virus. During the observation period of nine months, there was a possible co-infection with a second SARS-CoV-2 variant accompanied by none or very low antibody production until the possible co-infection. We suspect that the SARS-CoV-2 infection in this individual is limited to the salivary glands and does not spread (much) throughout the systemic compartment(s) of the body.

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2021.10.08.21262462: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableCase: A healthy male in his 50’s was presented to our research laboratory for our Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH)-based SARS-CoV-2 test on saliva5 in December 2020.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Antibodies
    SentencesResources
    The Wantai SARS-CoV-2 Ab ELISA, according to the manufacturer’s instructions, was utilized to test for SARS-CoV-2 antibody presence.
    SARS-CoV-2
    suggested: None

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.


    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.