Potential use of a dried saliva spot (DSS) in therapeutic drug monitoring and disease diagnosis.

In recent years, scientific researchers have increasingly become interested in noninvasive sampling methods for therapeutic drug monitoring and disease diagnosis. As a result, dried saliva spot (DSS), which is a sampling technique for collecting dried saliva samples, has been widely used as an alternative matrix to serum for the detection of target molecules. Coupling the DSS method with a highly sensitive detection instrument improves the efficiency of the preparation and analysis of biological samples. Furthermore, dried blood spots, dried plasma spots, and dried matrix spots, which are similar to those of the DSS method, are discussed. Compared with alternative biological fluids used in dried spot methods, including serum, tears, urine, and plasma, saliva has the advantage of convenience in terms of sample collection from children or persons with disabilities. This review aims to provide integral strategies and guidelines for dried spot methods to analyze biological samples by illustrating several dried spot methods. Herein, we summarize recent advancements in DSS methods from June 2014 to March 2021 and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the key aspects of this method, including sample preparation and method validation. Finally, we outline the challenges and prospects of such methods in practical applications. Dried blood spot (DBS), dried urine spot (DUS) and dried matrix spot (DMS) have shown to be useful tools to measure analyte in blood, urine and various biological fluids. These methods have same advantages of ease of sample collection, transportation and storage, simplicity of pretreatment and requiring small sample volume. Moreover, a new sampling method, dried saliva spot (DSS), is used as an alternative noninvasive specimen to plasma and urine. And there are some differences between DSS and abovementioned methods, including saliva collection is not restricted anytime and anywhere, low invasiveness compared to other biological samples, readily accepted by children and patients, and reflect the plasma free drug concentration. In addition, all aspects of the DSS, including sample collection, selection of an appropriate filter paper types and filter paper cutting tool, sample preparation, advantages and challenges, will be extensively discussed. [Display omitted] • Use of dried saliva spots (DSS) in drug monitoring and disease diagnosis is reviewed. • Advantages and limitations of the development of the DSS methods are discussed. • Different matrices used in the dried spot method were compared with those of DSS. • Feasibility and prospects of DSS in clinical diagnosis are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]