Nasal host response-based screening for undiagnosed respiratory viruses: a pathogen surveillance and detection study

Prime‐time for clinical use of transcriptomics for differentiating viral from bacterial respiratory infection

“…Regarding the viral score, the test yielded an infinite positive LR with specificity of 100% to rule in viral infection in the highest quartile, and a LR of .22 with a sensitivity of 85% to rule out a viral infection in the lowest quartile. This article is aligned with other recent ones using host responses to better characterise the microbial aetiology or respiratory infections, such as the works from Cheemarla NR et al using CXCL10 levels in nasopharyngeal swabs 11 or that from Almansa R et al using a transcriptomic signature in blood 12 which pretend to identify viral infections, or the transcriptomic test evaluated by Ko Mr et al to discriminate bacterial from viral infection among patients with febrile acute respiratory illness, which showed a high negative predictive value for bacterial infection (90%), outperforming that of PCT 13 …”

Respiratory viruses: New frontiers—a Keystone Symposia report

“…Viral genome analyses showed that these four cases were genetically distinct, representing separate introductions of the virus. This work demonstrates practical applications of host response‐based screening in virus discovery and surveillance 61 …”

“…This work demonstrates practical applications of host response-based screening in virus discovery and surveillance. 61…”

CXCL10 biomarker proteins are linked to the discovery of new emerging respiratory viruses

“…Even while most nasal swab tests are designed to identify just around a dozen different viruses, previous studies have shown that in certain circumstances there is evidence that the body is fighting illness even when no virus is found. Nasal lining CXCL10, an antiviral protein, was found in significant concentrations [2] .…”

“…The current research used a comprehensive genetic sequencing approach to examine previously collected nose swab samples where CXCL10 was abundant, and they discovered the presence of an uncommon influenza virus called influenza C [2] . The same procedure also revealed four instances of COVID-19 that were not discovered at the time of sample collection [3,4] .…”