Genome-wide blood transcriptional profiling in critically ill patients - MARS consortium

The host response in critically ill patients with sepsis, septic shock remains poorly defined. Considerable research has been conducted to accurately distinguish patients with sepsis from those with non-infectious causes of disease. Technological innovations have positioned systems biology at the forefront of biomarker discovery. Analysis of the whole-blood leukocyte transcriptome enables the assessment of thousands of molecular signals beyond simply measuring several proteins in plasma, which for use as biomarkers is important since combinations of biomarkers likely provide more diagnostic accuracy than the measurement of single ones or a few. Evidence suggests that genome-wide transcriptional profiling of blood leukocytes can assist in differentiating between infection and non-infectious causes of severe disease. Of importance, RNA biomarkers have the potential advantage that they can be measured reliably in rapid quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR)-based point of care tests.

802

Scicluna BP, Klein Klouwenberg PM, van Vught LA, Wiewel MA, Ong DS, Zwinderman AH, Franitza M, Toliat MR, Nürnberg P, Hoogendijk AJ, Horn J, Cremer OL, Schultz MJ, Bonten MJ, van der Poll T