Emerging infection and sepsis biomarkers: will they change current therapies?

INTRODUCTION: Sepsis is a heterogeneous syndrome characterized by both immune hyperactivity and relative immune suppression. Biomarkers have the potential to improve recognition and management of sepsis through three main applications: diagnosis, monitoring response to treatment, and stratifying patients based on prognosis or underlying biological response.

AREAS COVERED: This review focuses on specific examples of well-studied, evidence-supported biomarkers, and discusses their role in clinical practice with special attention to antibiotic stewardship and cost-effectiveness. Biomarkers were selected based on availability of robust prospective trials and meta-analyses which supported their role as emerging tools to improve the clinical management of sepsis. Expert commentary: Great strides have been made in candidate sepsis biomarker discovery and testing, with the biomarkers in this review showing promise. Yet sepsis remains a dynamic illness with a great degree of biological heterogeneity - heterogeneity which may be further resolved by recently discovered gene expression-based endotypes in septic shock.