Host Gene Expression Signatures Tell Viral from Bacterial Infections

Bacterial and viral pathogens elicit different gene signatures in blood cells of hosts that they infect, according to Purvesh Khatri of Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., and his colleagues. These signatures, if incorporated into routine clinical tests, could be used to distinguish between these two major types of infections early on, and thus could help clinicians to avoid prescribing unnecessary antibiotics that contribute to antibiotic resistance, they point out.