近日，国际著名杂志PNAS在线刊登的一项研究报告说，一种基于单RNA的阵列可能迅速同时识别出感染性生物以及可能用于应对它们的抗生素。
Deborah T. Hung及其同事们使用具有物种特异性的RNA标记发现了一大批感染原，包括细菌、病毒、酵母和寄生虫。这组科研人员还确定了每个病原体的抗生素敏感性，方法是分析短暂暴露在一种抗生素之后引发的转录应答，这可以把敏感和耐药生物区分开来。利用一个简单的商品化方法，这组科研人员识别出了诸如埃希氏大肠菌、人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）和流感病毒等病毒，以及导致疟疾的寄生虫。这种阵列还区分开了诸如埃希氏大肠菌和结核分枝杆菌（Mycobacterium tuberculosis）等对抗生素敏感和耐药的菌株。
当使用这种阵列分析临床尿样的时候，它识别出了病原体并确定了它们的抗生素敏感性，而不需要扩增核酸或者分离病原体。这组作者说，RNA标记可能用于探测一大批病原体，而这项研究证明了用这种方法迅速诊断感染性疾病的可行性。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1073/pnas.1119540109
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RNA signatures allow rapid identification of pathogens and antibiotic susceptibilities
Amy K. Barczaka,b,c,d,1, James E. Gomeza,c,1, Benjamin B. Kaufmanna,b,c, Ella R. Hinsona,b,c, Lisa Cosimia,e, Mark L. Borowskyb, Andrew B. Onderdonkf, Sarah A. Stanleya,b,c, Devinder Kaurg, Kevin F. Bryantc, David M. Knipec, Alexander Sloutskyg, and Deborah T. Hunga,b,c,d,e,2
With rising rates of drug-resistant infections, there is a need for diagnostic methods that rapidly can detect the presence of pathogens and reveal their susceptibility to antibiotics. Here we propose an approach to diagnosing the presence and drug-susceptibility of infectious diseases based on direct detection of RNA from clinical samples. We demonstrate that species-specific RNA signatures can be used to identify a broad spectrum of infectious agents, including bacteria, viruses, yeast, and parasites. Moreover, we show that the behavior of a small set of bacterial transcripts after a brief antibiotic pulse can rapidly differentiate drug-susceptible and -resistant organisms and that these measurements can be made directly from clinical materials. Thus, transcriptional signatures could form the basis of a uniform diagnostic platform applicable across a broad range of infectious agents.
