Dr. Rishi Gupta (UCL Institute for Global Health) and his team of researchers are developing a study, in which trying to identify which gene expression signatures, present in the blood, can be evaluated to detect tuberculosis, before the onset symptoms.
The re-markers initially conducted a review of the gene signatures in the blood samples with Tuberculosis. From these reviews, 17 gene expression signatures were identified, tested in over 1100 blood samples.
The samples analyzed belonged to people who had no symptoms of tuberculosis, the same people were then followed in the following months to observe who developed tuberculosis and who did not.
8 of these signatures appear to detect tuberculosis in 3-6 months.
According to Rishi Gupta, gene-signed tests are a great hope for managing infectious diseases, given that it is possible to intervene on patients thanks to an early diagnosis.
If you want to know more take a look to the article of technologynetworks.com.