ABSTRACT
Background: Saliva is one of the diagnostic tools available for dental fields due to its comfortable and noninvasive nature and greater patient acceptance of all ages, especially elderly individuals, children and cancer patients, when compared to the gold standard (swabs). As cancer incidence has been increasing worldwide, the discomfort, soreness, ulcerations and dryness a patient may suffer would divert our strategy toward novel ways for increasing patient acceptance of diagnostic tools and therapy, i.e., using saliva for such purposes. Many studies have shown the antimicrobial effects of vitamin D, one of which is its antiviral effects and role in the immune system. The aimof this study was to explore the antiviral effects of vitamin D on saliva samples collected from COVID-19-positive patients and to compare saliva and swab results to aid in the development of new policies to better serve these patients. Methods: Inclusion criteria were as follows: saliva and swab samples collected from adult patients with a positive test for COVID-19 at the KFSH-RC in Jeddah: Department of ER, Family Medicine and Inpatients. The exclusion criteria for patients were immunocompromised and pregnant, children and those younger than 18 years of age. D3 was made at different concentrations (100 IU, 300 IU, 800 IU and 1,200 IU) and was added to the first samples in the laboratory (n=20); the rest of the swab specimens were compared to the saliva samples via RT‒PCR (total n=257). Results: Of these, 236 participants (94.8%) had positive saliva sample test results, 7 (2.8%) had errors, and 6 (2.4%) had negative saliva sample test results. Of the 236 positive tests, 235 (99.6%) had acycle threshold (Ct values) indicating strong positive reactions, and only one value (Ct=28.86) was weak. Conclusion: Among the 236 positive test results, 235 (99.6%) exhibited robust positive reactions, indicating a substantial positive sample size. Consequently, saliva might be considered a dependable alternative testing tool when obtaining swab samples from patients is inconvenient or challenging.