Profile of the SeptiCyte™ LAB gene expression assay to diagnose infection in critically ill patients

Sepsis is a severe and frequently occurring clinical syndrome, caused by the inflammatory response to infections. Recent studies on the human transcriptome during sepsis have yielded several gene-expression assays that might assist physicians during clinical assessment of patients suspected of sepsis. SeptiCyte™ LAB (Immunexpress, Seattle, WA) is the first gene expression assay that was cleared by the FDA in the United States to distinguish infectious from non-infectious causes of systemic inflammation in critically ill patients. The test consists of the simultaneous amplification of four RNA transcripts (CEACAM4, LAMP1, PLAC8, and PLA2G7) in whole blood using a quantitative real time PCR reaction. This review provides an overview of the challenges in the diagnosis of sepsis, the development of gene expression signatures, and a detailed description of available clinical performance studies evaluating SeptiCyte™ LAB.