Floqswab

A prospective pilot carriage study was conducted among healthy adults in November 2019 to obtain S. mitis isolates that would test the robustness and discriminatory power of the developed genomic tools. Healthy adults above the age of 18 who were UCL students or staff were eligible. Current or recent antibiotic use within 2 weeks prior to sampling was an exclusion criterion. In total, 12 healthy adults were recruited.
Briefly, nasopharyngeal, oral, and oropharyngeal samples were obtained. Nasopharyngeal swab samples were taken with Copan FLOQswabs (Copan, USA) using a previously described technique (45 (link)). Oral swab samples were taken using Copan FLOQswabs, and to ensure adequate sampling of regions known to be colonized by S. mitis (12 (link)), the surface of the teeth, dorsum of the tongue, hard palate, left and right buccal mucosa, and maxillary and mandibular gingiva were sampled with the same swab. Both oral and nasopharyngeal swabs were stored in skim milk-tryptone-glucose-glycerol (STGG) medium. Cough samples were obtained from volunteers directly onto sterile Columbia blood agar (CBA) plates. Additional respiratory samples were collected using a facemask device with a soluble polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) inner strip as previously described (46 (link)), and PVA strips were dissolved in Todd-Hewitt broth with yeast extract (THY) culture medium prior to inoculation.

Cervical samples were collected using an L-shaped FLOQSwab^® (Copan, Brescia, Italy) and transported in a tube with 20 mL of PreservCyt^® Solution (HOLOGIC, Marlborough, MA, USA). All samples were well shaken using vortex for 30 seconds, and 1.5 mL aliquots were made.
Vaginal self-samples were obtained using a FLOQSwab^® (Copan, Brescia, Italy) and transported dry to the laboratory. Each specimen was suspended in 5.5 mL of PreservCyt^® Solution (HOLOGIC, Marlborough, MA, USA), and 5 aliquots were made.
The Colli-Pee^® 20 mL device allowed for capturing a first-void urine volume of 13 mL (+/− 2 mL), in a collection device containing 7 mL of preservative urine conservation medium (UCM), leading to a final volume of 20 mL (+/− 2 mL) [15 (link)]. Urine samples were aliquoted after arrival at the laboratory. One aliquot of each type of sample was sent to the Division of Laboratory Medicine of the European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy, for HPV testing.