Colorized transmission electron micrograph depicting the influenza A/CA/4/09 virusCDCA blood-based gene expression signature of patient response to pathogens can be used to detect respiratory viral infections and sufficiently distinguish them from their non-viral counterparts in an emergency department setting, researchers have shown in a proof-of-concept study published today (September 18) in Science Translational Medicine. The researchers suggested that their host response-based approach could help clinicians better identify viral infections, and therefore curb the unnecessary prescription of antibiotics.
Most infectious disease diagnostics work to identify traces of the pathogen, and therefore require some preexisting knowledge of the agent. The new test, from Duke University Medical Center’s Aimee Zaas and her colleagues, instead evaluates how strongly certain host genes are turned on or expressed in the presence of a pathogen.
“It’s an interesting paper. It takes a different approach from what we traditionally do in a microbiology lab, which is look for pathogens,” said James Mahony from McMaster University in Canada, who was not involved in the study. “Looking for host transcriptional patterns indicative of a viral infection versus a non-viral infection . . . is an interesting approach, and totally different from what I do as a clinical virologist.”
“Viruses do not have ...
