Evaluation of the Efficacy of Mouth Rinses With Commercial Mouthwashes to Decrease Viral Load in Saliva in COVID-19 Patients

Analysis of short-term changes in viral load using PCR may not detect effective treatments because PCR is unable to differentiate between intact infectious virus and non-infectious or destroyed virus particles. For example Alemany, Tarragó‐Gil perform RCTs with cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) mouthwash that show no difference in PCR viral load, however there was significantly increased detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein, indicating viral lysis. CPC inactivates SARS-CoV-2 by degrading its membrane, exposing the nucleocapsid of the virus. To better estimate changes in viral load and infectivity, methods like viral culture or antigen detection that can differentiate intact vs. degraded virus are preferred.