In a new study, researchers have identified biomarkers that accurately identify numerous viral infections across the clinical stages of the disease.
The finding advances a potential new way to guide treatment, quarantine decisions, and other clinical and public health interventions in the setting of endemic and pandemic infectious diseases.
The research was conducted by a team of Duke Health scientists.
The researchers have been working for years to develop and fine-tune tests that quickly distinguish bacterial infections from viral infections—a public health need to assure that antibiotics are properly prescribed.
Antibiotics are ineffective against viruses, and their improper use has fueled the rise of treatment-resistant bacteria.
The current study advances that work and provides a clinically applicable approach to not only identify a viral infection but to do so before symptoms develop and often before standard viral PCR tests become positive.
The new blood-based test uses a gene expression assay to correctly predict nine different respiratory viral infections—including influenza, enterovirus, adenovirus, and coronaviruses known to cause common colds.
It shows the body’s genes responding to a pathogen before symptoms are present.
The researchers enrolled 1,465 college students at Duke between 2009 and 2015 and monitored them for the entire academic year for the presence and severity of eight symptoms of respiratory tract infections.
For most of the study participants, the gene expression test accurately predicted viral infection up to three days before maximum symptoms, often prior to any symptom onset or detectable viral shedding.
For influenza, the assay was 99% accurate in predicting illness, 95% accurate for adenovirus, and 93% accurate for the cold-causing coronavirus strain.
Additional studies are ongoing to determine the genomic markers’ effectiveness in detecting SARS-CoV-2, the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Preliminary findings from those studies have been posted on a public website and the data are currently under peer review.
One author of the study is Micah McClain, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Medicine.
The study is published in Lancet Infectious Diseases.
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