Holcomb Zachary E, Tsalik Ephraim L, Woods Christopher W, McClain Micah T
Duke University School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
J Clin Microbiol. 2017 Feb;55(2):360-368. doi: 10.1128/JCM.01057-16. Epub 2016 Oct 19.
Emerging pandemic infectious threats, inappropriate antibacterial use contributing to multidrug resistance, and increased morbidity and mortality from diagnostic delays all contribute to a need for improved diagnostics in the field of infectious diseases. Historically, diagnosis of infectious diseases has relied on pathogen detection; however, a novel concept to improve diagnostics in infectious diseases relies instead on the detection of changes in patterns of gene expression in circulating white blood cells in response to infection. Alterations in peripheral blood gene expression in the infected state are robust and reproducible, yielding diagnostic and prognostic information to help facilitate patient treatment decisions.
新出现的大流行性传染病威胁、导致多重耐药性的不适当抗菌药物使用，以及诊断延迟导致的发病率和死亡率增加，都促使人们需要改进传染病领域的诊断方法。从历史上看，传染病的诊断依赖于病原体检测；然而，一种改进传染病诊断的新概念则依赖于检测循环白细胞中基因表达模式因感染而发生的变化。感染状态下外周血基因表达的改变是强烈且可重复的，可提供诊断和预后信息，以帮助促进患者的治疗决策。
