Salivary Biomarkers for the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis (TB) Disease

Advances in diagnostic technologies have expanded the use of saliva as a valuable testing medium. Saliva collection is simple, non-invasive, and avoids many of the challenges associated with blood or sputum sampling, making it highly suitable for point-of-care and community-based screening.
As part of a broader tuberculosis (TB) biomarker study, the Stellenbosch research team identified 26 saliva-based protein biomarkers that reliably differentiate individuals with active TB from those with other respiratory diseases (ORD). These findings were generated from saliva samples collected from 22 symptomatic individuals who self-presented with possible TB.
From this panel, the researchers developed two highly accurate diagnostic biosignatures:
•    A five-protein signature that diagnosed TB with an AUC of 1.00, 100% sensitivity, and 90.9% specificity.
•    An alternative four-protein signature that correctly classified 100% of TB and 100% of ORD cases, with an overall classification accuracy of 90.9% across both groups.
These results demonstrate the strong potential of saliva-based protein biosignatures as a rapid, non-invasive, and reliable diagnostic tool for TB.