ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2021
A New Specimen for Syphilis Diagnosis: Evidence by High Loads of Treponema pallidum DNA in Saliva.
Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 29 papers.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- Oral linezolid compared with benzathine penicillin G for treatment of early syphilis in adults (Trep-AB Study) in Spain: a prospective, open-label, non-inferiority, randomised controlled trial.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2024Trial
- Clearance ofEClinicalMedicine · 2026Article
- The Global Syphilis Epidemic: Turning the Tide.Sexually transmitted diseases · 2026Article
- Implementation and Innovation in Syphilis Diagnostics: Insights from Global Health Systems, Molecular Testing, and Self-Testing Strategies.Sexually transmitted diseases · 2026Article
- Detection ofMicrobiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Evaluation of the service quality and diagnostic performance of syphilis self-test kits purchased from E-commerce platforms in China.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Rapid visual detection of Treponema pallidum using the RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a system.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Factors associated with cerebrospinal fluid abnormalities suggestive of neurosyphilis in HIV-negative patients with secondary syphilis: a retrospective study.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Diagnostic importance of Treponema pallidum Tp0971 in the serological assessment of treatment efficacy for syphilis.Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials · 2025Article
- Detection of Treponema pallidum tpp47 DNA in clinical samples of syphilis patients.European journal of medical research · 2025Article
- The Proportion ofOpen forum infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Potential use of saliva infrared spectra and machine learning for a minimally invasive screening test for congenital syphilis in infants.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Identification of antibodies induced by immunization with the syphilis vaccine candidate Tp0751.Vaccine · 2025Article
- Update on syphilis diagnostics.Current opinion in infectious diseases · 2025Review
- Prospective evaluation of non-invasive saliva specimens for the diagnosis of syphilis and molecular surveillance ofJournal of clinical microbiology · 2024Article
- Article
- An Update on the Status of Direct Testing forJournal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada = Journal officiel de l'Association pour la microbiologie medicale et l'infectiologie Canada · 2024Review
- CDC Laboratory Recommendations for Syphilis Testing, United States, 2024.MMWR. Recommendations and reports : Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Recommendations and reports · 2024Article
- Clinicopathologic assessment of secondary syphilis avoids misdiagnosis: results of comprehensive evaluation of 114 cases.Postepy dermatologii i alergologii · 2024Article
- Clinical parameter-based prediction model for neurosyphilis risk stratification.Epidemiology and infection · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
12 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDNA from many pathogens can be detected in saliva. However, the presence and quantity of Treponema pallidum DNA in patients with syphilis in saliva is unknown.
methods234 patients with syphilis with different stages and 30 volunteers were enrolled. Paired saliva and plasma samples were collected from all participants. Consecutive saliva samples from 9 patients were collected every 4 hours following treatment. Treponema pallidum DNA in samples was determined by nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and droplet digital PCR targeting polA and Tpp47.
resultsTreponema pallidum DNA detection rates in saliva and plasma were 31.0% (9/29) and 51.7% (15/29) in primary syphilis (P = .11), 87.5% (63/72) and 61.1% (44/72) in secondary syphilis (P < .001), 25.6% (21/82) and 8.5% (7/82) in latent syphilis (P = .004), and 21.6% (11/51) and 5.9% (3/51) in symptomatic neurosyphilis (P = .021), respectively. Median (range) loads of Tpp47 and polA in saliva were 627 (0-101 200) and 726 (0-117 260) copies/mL, respectively, for patients with syphilis. In plasma, however, loads of Tpp47 and polA were low: medians (range) of 0 (0-149.6) and 0 (0-176) copies/mL, respectively. Loads of T. pallidum DNA in saliva during treatment fluctuated downward; the clearance time was positively correlated with the loads of T. pallidum DNA before treatment.
conclusionsCollection of saliva is noninvasive and convenient. The high loads of T. pallidum DNA in saliva and reduction after treatment indicated that saliva can be not only a diagnostic fluid for syphilis but also an indicator of therapeutic effectiveness.
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