Blood transcriptome of human sepsis in an Indian cohort [Illumina array]. Blood transcriptome of human sepsis in an Indian cohort [Illumina array]

Sepsis remains a lethal ailment with imprecise treatment and ill-understood biology. A clinical transcriptomic analysis of sepsis patients was performed for the first time in India and revealed large-scale change in blood gene expression in patients of severe sepsis and septic shock admitted to ICU. Three biological processes were quantified using scores derived from the corresponding transcriptional modules. Comparison of the module scores revealed that genes associated with immune response were more suppressed compared to the inflammation-associated genes. These findings will have great implication in the treatment and prognosis of severe sepsis/septic shock if translated into a bedside tool. Overall design: Transcriptomic profiling was performed on sepsis cases and on matched (by age and gender) healthy controls, who were not suffering from any inflammatory diseases, and were not related to the patients. Samples were collected at two different time points in the cases. Two blood samples from the sepsis cases were collected, the first at the time of diagnosis (D1), and a second sample after 24 hours (D2) . Representative single blood sample was collected from each of the healthy control individuals. A total of 27 patients (23 with paired transcriptome data for two time points) and 12 healthy control subjects (for the single time point) were recruited in this study.

脓毒症（Sepsis）仍是一种致死性疾病，其临床治疗方案尚欠精准，发病机制亦未完全阐明。本研究首次在印度开展脓毒症患者的临床转录组学分析，结果显示，入住重症监护病房（Intensive Care Unit, ICU）的重度脓毒症及脓毒性休克患者的血液基因表达发生了大规模改变。研究人员通过对应转录模块衍生的评分，对三种生物学过程进行了定量分析。对模块评分的对比分析显示，与炎症相关基因相比，免疫应答相关基因的表达抑制程度更为显著。若将该研究成果转化为床边检测工具，将对重度脓毒症/脓毒性休克的治疗与预后评估具有重要价值。整体实验设计：本研究对脓毒症病例以及按年龄和性别匹配的健康对照者开展了转录组谱分析（transcriptomic profiling）；健康对照者未罹患任何炎症性疾病，且与病例无亲缘关系。脓毒症病例分别在两个不同时间点采集血液样本：首次采集于确诊时（记为D1），第二次采集于确诊后24小时（记为D2）；每名健康对照者仅采集一份单次血液样本。本研究共招募27名脓毒症患者（其中23名拥有两个时间点的配对转录组数据）以及12名健康对照者（仅提供单次时间点的样本）。