Host gene expression classifiers diagnose acute respiratory illness etiology.
Recommended Citation
Tsalik EL, Henao R, Nichols M, Burke T, Ko ER, McClain MT, Hudson LL, Mazur A, Freeman DH, Veldman T, Langley RJ, Quackenbush EB, Glickman SW, Cairns CB, Jaehne AK, Rivers EP, Otero RM, Zaas AK, Kingsmore SF, Lucas J, Fowler VG, Jr., Carin L, Ginsburg GS, and Woods CW. Host gene expression classifiers diagnose acute respiratory illness etiology. Sci Transl Med 2016; 8(322):322ra311.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-20-2016
Publication Title
Sci Transl Med
Abstract
Acute respiratory infections caused by bacterial or viral pathogens are among the most common reasons for seeking medical care. Despite improvements in pathogen-based diagnostics, most patients receive inappropriate antibiotics. Host response biomarkers offer an alternative diagnostic approach to direct antimicrobial use. This observational cohort study determined whether host gene expression patterns discriminate noninfectious from infectious illness and bacterial from viral causes of acute respiratory infection in the acute care setting. Peripheral whole blood gene expression from 273 subjects with community-onset acute respiratory infection (ARI) or noninfectious illness, as well as 44 healthy controls, was measured using microarrays. Sparse logistic regression was used to develop classifiers for bacterial ARI (71 probes), viral ARI (33 probes), or a noninfectious cause of illness (26 probes). Overall accuracy was 87% (238 of 273 concordant with clinical adjudication), which was more accurate than procalcitonin (78%, P < 0.03) and three published classifiers of bacterial versus viral infection (78 to 83%). The classifiers developed here externally validated in five publicly available data sets (AUC, 0.90 to 0.99). A sixth publicly available data set included 25 patients with co-identification of bacterial and viral pathogens. Applying the ARI classifiers defined four distinct groups: a host response to bacterial ARI, viral ARI, coinfection, and neither a bacterial nor a viral response. These findings create an opportunity to develop and use host gene expression classifiers as diagnostic platforms to combat inappropriate antibiotic use and emerging antibiotic resistance.
Medical Subject Headings
Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Case-Control Studies; Child; Child, Preschool; Cohort Studies; Coinfection; Demography; Female; Gene Expression Regulation; Host-Pathogen Interactions; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Reproducibility of Results; Respiratory Tract Infections; Signal Transduction; Young Adult
PubMed ID
26791949
Volume
8
Issue
322
First Page
322
Last Page
322
