Relman D A
Stanford University, California, USA.
Emerg Infect Dis. 1998 Jul-Sep;4(3):382-9. doi: 10.3201/eid0403.980310.
Features of a number of important but poorly explained human clinical syndromes strongly indicate a microbial etiology. In these syndromes, the failure of cultivation-dependent microbial detection methods reveals our ignorance of microbial growth requirements. Sequence-based molecular methods, however, offer alternative approaches for microbial identification directly from host specimens found in the setting of unexplained acute illnesses, chronic inflammatory disease, and from anatomic sites that contain commensal microflora. The rapid expansion of genome sequence databases and advances in biotechnology present opportunities and challenges: identification of consensus sequences from which reliable, specific phylogenetic information can be inferred for all taxonomic groups of pathogens, broad-range pathogen identification on the basis of virulence-associated gene families, and use of host gene expression response profiles as specific signatures of microbial infection.
许多重要但难以解释的人类临床综合征的特征强烈表明其病因是微生物。在这些综合征中，依赖培养的微生物检测方法未能检测出微生物，这揭示了我们对微生物生长需求的无知。然而，基于序列的分子方法为直接从不明原因的急性疾病、慢性炎症性疾病背景下的宿主标本以及含有共生微生物群的解剖部位中鉴定微生物提供了替代方法。基因组序列数据库的迅速扩展和生物技术的进步带来了机遇和挑战：确定共有序列，从中可以推断出所有病原体分类群可靠的、特定的系统发育信息；基于毒力相关基因家族进行广泛的病原体鉴定；以及将宿主基因表达反应谱用作微生物感染的特定特征。
