Saliva has been touted as a convenient, cost-effective biofluid for diagnostic purposes, with studies showing the addition of stabilizers to saliva preserves it for up to seven to 10 days at room temperature. Siqueira and his team tested the feasibility of saliva self-collection and large-scale mailing to a laboratory for further analysis in a sample of subjects distributed across Canada.

The study was the first of its kind to address a large-scale saliva collection and shipping protocol, the team said.