Multiomics characterization of acute child illness and mortality in Africa and South Asia - PubMed
3 hours ago
- #biomarkers
- #child mortality
- #multiomics
- Childhood illnesses from infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries significantly contribute to global under-five mortality.
- Many hospitalized children experience incomplete recovery, readmission, and post-discharge mortality despite guideline-directed care.
- This study employs multiomic profiling and multivariate modeling to investigate biological drivers of mortality in 3,101 acutely ill children across nine sites in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
- A nested case-cohort (N=1008) generates plasma proteomics, serum metabolomics and lipidomics, stool metagenomics, and fecal pathogen data at admission and discharge.
- An additional 270 geographically matched community children are profiled for biological baselines.
- A generalizable mortality signature is identified, marked by immune, inflammatory, and metabolic dysregulation with gut dysbiosis.
- Mortality-associated signals persist from admission through discharge, indicating unresolved disease.
- Malnourished children show greater baseline perturbations, explaining elevated risk.
- Some children with low clinical severity display high predicted mortality risk from targeted biomarkers.
- Predictive models are distilled to a clinically feasible biomarker panel and validated in an independent cohort (N=100).