Validation of the ultra-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) test in newborn saliva samples

• Grant number: 25/06542-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2025
• End date: May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Maternal and Child Health
• Principal Investigator: Eder de Carvalho Pincinato
• Grantee: Rafaela Fioravanti Cantu
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Médicas (FCM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The use of clinical biomarkers, such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), provides a more agile, less expensive and shorter clinical outcome. Currently, hs-CRP is widely used in routine laboratory tests as a nonspecific inflammatory marker, but it can be particularly useful in specific clinical conditions, such as guiding antibiotic therapy in neonatal sepsis and in the clinical management of neonatal pneumonia. In these situations, the hs-CRP test has advantages in terms of convenience, is economical and practical and can provide important information in the identification of these two clinical entities. However, one of the major problems in performing hs-CRP in neonates is the difficulty in collecting blood by venipuncture, in addition to the need for a large sample volume, in addition to the complications that can occur during collection, such as arterial pseudoaneurysms and even limb ischemia. One of the alternatives to blood collection is the determination of hs-CRP in saliva. Thus, this project has the general objective of validating the technique for determining hs-PCR in newborn saliva using the Beckman AU-5800 equipment, which until now had only been commercially validated for determining the analyte in serum samples.