ANRS Days
On April 1st and 2nd, 2025, the ANRS Scientific Days took place, focusing on the challenges of conducting research internationally.
Numerous topics were discussed, including prevention, detection, and control of emerging infectious threats, as well as conducting research during times of crisis. These highly international days, marked by the diversity of countries represented, highlighted the richness of cross-country collaborations on multiple epidemic risks—despite the many difficulties faced, which have been exacerbated by the current international political context.
On this occasion, Cloé Grosbois presented her work (see below) in the form of a poster entitled:
“Advancing Respiratory Virus Diagnostics: Integrating the Nasal IFN-I Score for Improved Viral Detection.”
The study presented at the ANRS Scientific Days explores the utility of measuring the type I interferon (IFN-I) response as a universal marker of respiratory viral infections (RVIs), to enhance diagnosis alongside first-line PCR tests.
Nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) collected from hospitalized patients (Lyon, Nov. 2022–Apr. 2024) suspected of having RVIs (n=788), and from healthy controls (n=53), were analyzed. The IFN-I score, which measures the expression of four IFN-I stimulated genes, was evaluated using the FilmArray® IFN-I prototype (bioMérieux®).
Among the 504/788 NPS samples that tested positive for a virus covered by first-line tests, the IFN-I score was significantly higher than in healthy controls (median [IQR]: 13.00 [2.76–45.40] vs 1.09 [0.67–1.30], respectively; p<0.0001), with an area under the curve (AUC; 95% CI) of 0.92 (0.90–0.92). Among the 284 NPS that tested negative by first-line PCR, 63% had a high IFN-I score, suggesting a possible infection caused by another virus. Second-line testing (an extended PCR panel targeting 23 pathogens) and viral metagenomics confirmed the presence of a viral infection in 94% of these cases.
This study underscores the potential of the IFN-I score to improve RVI diagnostics and opens new perspectives for the detection of emerging viruses.
🔗 Link to the event summary
