About this Research Topic
A biomarker is a naturally occurring molecule or gene by which a particular physiologic or pathologic status can be identified. An ideal biomarker should have high sensitivity and specificity and can be easy measured easily. Sepsis remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality both in veterinary medicine. Recognizing sepsis early is essential to rapid intervention. In human medicine although several biomarkers for sepsis have been identified, very few have been applied in clinics for sepsis diagnosis. In veterinary medicine the use of biomarkers for sepsis is still at its initial stages. The detection of an accurate biomarker in sepsis is decisive in critical situations with the ability to exclude or confirm an acute bacterial infection, to evaluate the systemic inflammatory response to infection and the host response to the established therapy.
The goal of this Research Topic is to collect contributions of high scientific quality relevant to biomarkers of sepsis in veterinary patients. Traditional biomarkers are proteins and cytokines but in recent years the omics approaches have developed into new feasible and less costly tools. The use of RNA biomarkers for example has the advantage that these can be incorporated in polymerase chain reaction based making them attractive for implementation in clinical practice. A problem with traditional biomarkers in veterinary medicine is the lack of specie specific methods to measure them, often human tests are used also without validation. Promising biomarkers are emerging, but validity and clinical utility has only been tested for very few of them.
This Research Topic will focus on the following themes:
• Traditional and innovative methods of biomarkers analysis: conventional methods require multi-step analysis, hence time consuming, costly and need trained personnel and are laboratory based. Handheld point-of-care alternatives to the lab-based diagnosis should be developed so as to facilitate better healthcare. A very promising approach can be the use of sensitive biosensors.
• New biomarkers of diagnosis and prognosis of sepsis: the omics technologies represent a new and promising field of research which associate expression at RNA, protein and metabolites levels.
• Application of biomarkers in clinical settings: a biomarker should be useful in early diagnosis, provide information regarding the prognosis including the patient in subpopulations whose outcome is better/worse than the population in question and provide in the clinical settings, information on how the patient responds to therapy and eventually help in modulating the therapeutic strategy.
The goal of this Research Topic is to collect contributions of high scientific quality relevant to biomarkers of sepsis in veterinary patients. Traditional biomarkers are proteins and cytokines but in recent years the omics approaches have developed into new feasible and less costly tools. The use of RNA biomarkers for example has the advantage that these can be incorporated in polymerase chain reaction based making them attractive for implementation in clinical practice. A problem with traditional biomarkers in veterinary medicine is the lack of specie specific methods to measure them, often human tests are used also without validation. Promising biomarkers are emerging, but validity and clinical utility has only been tested for very few of them.
This Research Topic will focus on the following themes:
• Traditional and innovative methods of biomarkers analysis: conventional methods require multi-step analysis, hence time consuming, costly and need trained personnel and are laboratory based. Handheld point-of-care alternatives to the lab-based diagnosis should be developed so as to facilitate better healthcare. A very promising approach can be the use of sensitive biosensors.
• New biomarkers of diagnosis and prognosis of sepsis: the omics technologies represent a new and promising field of research which associate expression at RNA, protein and metabolites levels.
• Application of biomarkers in clinical settings: a biomarker should be useful in early diagnosis, provide information regarding the prognosis including the patient in subpopulations whose outcome is better/worse than the population in question and provide in the clinical settings, information on how the patient responds to therapy and eventually help in modulating the therapeutic strategy.
Keywords: biomarkers of sepsis, veterinary sepsis, biomarkers analysis, biomarkers in clinical setting
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