Previremic Identification of Ebola or Marburg Virus Infection Using Integrated Host-Transcriptome and Viral Genome Detection

Abstract

Current molecular tests that identify infection with high-consequence viruses such as Ebola virus and Marburg virus are based on the detection of virus material in the blood. These viruses do not undergo significant early replication in the blood and, instead, replicate in organs such as the liver and spleen. Thus, virus begins to accumulate in the blood only after significant replication has already occurred in those organs, making viremia an indicator of infection only after initial stages have become established. Here, we show that a multianalyte assay can correctly identify the infectious agent in nonhuman primates (NHPs) prior to viremia through tracking host infection response transcripts. This illustrates that a single-tube, sample-to-answer format assay could be used to advance the time at which the type of infection can be determined and thereby improve outcomes.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jun 30, 2020
Source ID
10.1128/mbio.01157-20

Entities

People

  • Anna N. Honko
  • Dawn M. Gerhardt
  • Emily Speranza
  • Ignacio Caballero
  • J. Kyle Bohannon
  • Jennifer Sword
  • John Connor
  • Joshua C Johnson
  • Lisa Evans Dewald
  • Lisa Hensley
  • Richard S. Bennett

Organizations

  • Boston University
  • Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • National Institutes of Health

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Oncology and Biomarker-Based Cancer Detection.
  • Virology (or Medical Virology).