Can we doctors
definitely say in the acute phase, whether an infectious disease is
due to bacteria, virus or mixed? Is there any blood test to know it?
Answer will be no to
a larger extent. Diagnosis, largely depends on the epidemiology; most
of upper respiratory infections are due to viral infection. Such types of
assumptions and uncertainties lead to misuse of antibiotics,
antibiotic resistance and adverse effect due to antibiotic use; nontheless, the financial burden on the family.
Several bio-markers
like CRP (C-Reactive Protein), procalcitonin and Interleukin-6 are
used to support the diagnosis of bacterial infection. But, take the
case of CRP, it is increased in cases of bacterial infection and
non-infectious inflammatory diseases as well.
Recently, in a
research article published in PLOS One, the researchers claim to
have successfully tested for a novel Host Immune Protein that is
mostly elevated in viral infection and least in bacterial infection.
In the PLOS One study, the ImmunoXpert
immune signature was developed and independently validated on a
cohort of 1002 patients with acute infections and yielded highly
accurate results, with sensitivity and specificity greater than 90%.
The best performing host-protein was TNF-related apoptosis-inducing
ligand (TRAIL) to diagnose viral infection.
MeMed, Ltd., announced publication of
the results of this large multicenter prospective clinical study that
validates the ability of its ImmunoXpertTM in-vitro
diagnostic blood test, enrolling over 1000 patients between 2009 and
2013.
Reportedly, three host proteins are
tested in ImmunoXpert kit; CRP, IP 10 and TRAIL; from swing of
results, the most probable cause of infection i.e. bacterial or viral
can be distinguished. TRAIL (member of the tumor necrosis factor
family implicated in programmed cell death), IP-10
(IFN-gamma-inducible protein 10) small cytokine implicated in
multiple cellular processes including chemotaxis and cell growth
inhibition, and CRP (acute phase protein with diverse roles in tissue
injury, infection and other inflammation processes).
This test will perhaps be a boon to mankind and handy to the doctors for near accurate diagnosis.
This test will perhaps be a boon to mankind and handy to the doctors for near accurate diagnosis.
