Emerging biomarkers for the diagnosis of severe neonatal infections applicable to low resource settings
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Updated: May 16, 2026
A Neonatal Imaging Model of Gram-Negative Bacterial Sepsis
Published on: August 12, 2020
Thor A Wagner1, Courtney A Gravett, Sara Healy
1Seattle Children's, Seattle, Washington, USA ; Department of Pediatrics at University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Insights
Serious neonatal infections cause over 500,000 child deaths annually in low-resource settings. Eight promising biomarkers show potential for accurate diagnosis, aiding in reducing neonatal mortality and morbidity.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal health
- Infectious disease diagnostics
- Biomarker discovery
Background:
- Serious neonatal infections are a leading cause of death in low-resource settings, with over 500,000 child deaths annually.
- Current diagnostic methods are often inadequate for early and accurate identification of infections in these environments.
- Development of accessible and effective diagnostics is crucial to reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and identify novel biomarkers for diagnosing serious neonatal infections.
- To evaluate the performance and abundance of identified biomarkers for potential use in low-resource settings.
- To highlight promising biomarkers that could improve neonatal diagnostic capabilities.
Main Methods:
- Conducted a systematic review of scientific literature to identify potential biomarkers for neonatal infections.
- Screened over 250 potential biomarkers based on performance and abundance criteria.
- Selected biomarkers with high performance and high abundance suitable for low-resource settings.
Main Results:
- Identified over 250 potential new biomarkers for diagnosing serious neonatal infections.
- Eight biomarkers demonstrated both high performance and high abundance: antithrombin, inter-α inhibitor proteins, interferon-γ inducible protein-10, interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, LPS binding protein, mannose binding lectin, serum amyloid A, resistin, and visfatin.
- These eight biomarkers are promising for diagnosing serious neonatal infections in resource-limited settings.
Conclusions:
- Eight high-performance, high-abundance biomarkers show significant promise for diagnosing serious neonatal infections in low-resource settings.
- These biomarkers could potentially reduce neonatal deaths and associated morbidity.
- Further clinical trials comparing these novel biomarkers with traditional ones are warranted to validate their utility.
Abstract:
More than 500 000 children die each year in low resource settings due to serious neonatal infections. Better diagnostics that can be utilized in these settings to identify infected infants have the potential to significantly reduce neonatal deaths and the associated morbidity. A systematic review was performed and identified more than 250 potential new biomarkers for the diagnosis of serious neonatal infections. Eight of these biomarkers were both high-performance and high-abundance (antithrombin, inter-α inhibitor proteins, interferon-γ inducible protein-10, interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, LPS binding protein, mannose binding lectin, serum amyloid A, resistin, visfatin), and are promising for the diagnosis of serious neonatal infections in low resource settings. Future clinical trials comparing these biomarkers with more traditional biomarkers seem warranted.
