STUDY PROTOCOL Salivary biomarkers associated with the progression of disease in people living with HIV: A scoping review [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations, 1 not approved] Priyanka Prasad 1* , Viola D’Souza 2* , Prasanna Mithra 3 , Raghu Radhakrishnan 4 1 Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India 2 Prasanna School of Public Health, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India 3 Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Karnataka, 575001, India 4 Department of Oral Pathology, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, 576104, India * Equal contributors First published: 19 Feb 2021, 10:130 https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.50813.1 Latest published: 17 Sep 2021, 10:130 https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.50813.2 v1 Abstract Background: Biomarkers are measurable indicators of normal biological processes, which provide an objective assessment of the physiologic state of living systems. Saliva contains several biomarkers that serve as a diagnostic tool in health and disease. Evaluation of a multitude of salivary components could potentially predict the clinical outcome. This is especially critical in a chronic, potentially life- threatening condition like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Scrupulous evaluation of relevant biomarkers could facilitate the early detection of HIV, determine the stage of infection and monitor the disease progression. Currently, there is a paucity of validated biomarkers in saliva predicting the disease progression in people living with HIV. In this scoping review, we aim to provide an overview of the available evidence on salivary markers associated with the progression of disease in people living with HIV. Methods: The authors shall develop a tailored search strategy for each database using relevant keywords. We will search for eligible studies indexed in the following databases: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and gray literature. We will restrict the search to studies published in the English language. Following deduplication, all search results will be exported to the EPPI reviewer web, where two independent reviewers using a data extraction tool developed and Open Peer Review Reviewer Status Invited Reviewers 1 2 3 version 2 (revision) 17 Sep 2021 version 1 19 Feb 2021 report report report Sudhir Prabhu , Father Muller Medical College, Mangalore, India 1. Pascale Ondoa , African Society for Laboratory Medicine, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2. Purnima Madhivanan , University of Arizona, Tucson, USA Namoonga Mantina , University of 3. Page 1 of 19 F1000Research 2021, 10:130 Last updated: 05 JAN 2022