RNA key to Ebola prognosis test

Friday January 20th, 2017

Scientists have found a test which could help predict whether patients infected with Ebola are likely to live or die, it has been announced.

The researchers describe their finding as a "molecular barcode" based on messenger RNA expression.

Researchers from Liverpool University, UK, worked with Boston University, USA, and Public Health England on the project.

They say their study, reported in Genome Biology, also provides data on the underlying causes of the disease.

Their findings show that the strength of the immediate immune response to infection is not a good indicator of prognosis.

Researcher Professor Julian Hiscox, from Liverpool, said: "Our study provides a benchmark of Ebola virus infection in humans, and suggests that rapid analysis of a patient's response to infection in an outbreak could provide valuable predictive information on disease outcome."

Fellow researcher Dr John Connor, from Boston, said: "It is not just defining how much Ebola virus that is present in a patient that defines whether a patient will survive.

"How the patient fights the infection is also key. Defining common aspects of how the immune system responds in individuals that survive opens a new window for studying how to keep Ebola virus infection from being a fatal infection."

Transcriptomic signatures differentiate survival from fatal outcomes in humans infected with Ebola virus Genome Biology 19 January 2017; doi:10.1186/s13059-016-1137-3

Tags: Africa | Flu & Viruses | North America | UK News

Printer friendly page