Nuffield Department of Medicine, Old Road Campus, University of Oxford, Roosevelt Drive, Headington OX3 7BN, Oxford, UK.
Biomark Med. 2011 Apr;5(2):131-48. doi: 10.2217/bmm.11.17.
Infectious diseases remain the greatest causes of morbidity and mortality in global terms. As much of the burden occurs in the developing world, limited access to diagnostic testing has hampered the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions, while, in the developed world, the cost of managing infectious diseases remains considerable. Despite the size of the problem there remains an ongoing need for tests that improve diagnostic sensitivity and specificity, provide more rapid diagnoses, are available for point-of-care testing in remote regions, and can help inform therapeutic decision-making by identifying resistance patterns or patient outcomes. This article discusses the background to biomarker development for infectious diseases, some current assays that are providing useful information regarding the host's response to infection (using examples such as Cytomegalovirus and Mycobacterium tuberculosis), as well as likely future technologies and their limitations.
传染病仍然是全球范围内发病率和死亡率的最大原因。由于大部分负担发生在发展中国家，诊断检测的获取有限，阻碍了这些疾病的诊断和治疗，而在发达国家，管理传染病的成本仍然相当可观。尽管存在着巨大的问题，但仍然需要能够提高诊断灵敏度和特异性的测试，提供更快速的诊断，能够在偏远地区进行即时检测，并通过识别耐药模式或患者结果来帮助指导治疗决策的测试。本文讨论了传染病生物标志物开发的背景，以及目前一些正在提供有关宿主对感染反应的有用信息的检测方法（例如巨细胞病毒和结核分枝杆菌），以及可能的未来技术及其局限性。
