Pre-symptomatic diagnosis of Ebola virus infection

Normalized Gene expression data used for meta-analysis from studies: GSE31747, GSE8317, GSE24943, GSE24125. We studied the changes in macaque and human peripheral blood cell gene expression after infection with Ebola Zaire virus (EBZ) to identify host responses that occur before the emergence of symptoms. We integrated data from in vivo and in vitro infection studies of macaque or human peripheral blood. We identified mRNAs that were differentially expressed at early, middle, and late times after infection. The EBZ early genes showing increased or decreased expression were then compared to literature-derived host responses to malaria, rhinovirus and influenza virus which identified the patterns unique to each pathogen. From the group of EBZ-specific genes, we next predicted those that encoded secreted or membrane-associated proteins. Pairs of these host response mRNAs or proteins could become candidates for differential diagnosis of an early EBZ infection, before the emergence of conventional symptoms. Four key immune response pathways that were activated early showed profoundly decreased expression at late times. GSE8317: The ‘VALUE’ column in .txt files which is the log2 ratio of Cy5-Treatment/Cy3-Control is imported into the analysis software after median baselining. GSE24943: Lowess normalization was applied to the ratio of Cy5-Treatment/Cy3-Control samples and imported into the analysis software after median baselining. GSE31747: Affymetrix Human Genome U95 Version 2 Array .CEL datafiles were RMA summarized, quantile normalized and median baselined for import into the analysis software. GSE24125: Lowess normalization was applied to the ratio of Cy5-Treatment/Cy3-Control samples and imported into the analysis software after median baselining.