Laboratory Diagnostics and Host Immune Biomarkers in Infection: From Pathogen Detection to Prognostic Modeling

Infectious diseases remain one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Their clinical course is determined not only by the nature of the invading pathogen but also by the host’s innate and adaptive immune responses. Two patients infected by the same organism may experience vastly different outcomes, from mild, transient illness to life-threatening sepsis or hyperinflammatory collapse. Understanding and predicting these divergent trajectories remain among the greatest challenges in infectious-disease medicine. Recent advances in molecular detection, immune biomarkers, and computational analytics are reshaping how clinicians and researchers approach this problem. Rapid pathogen identification, quantification of host-response mediators such as procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, and ferritin, and algorithm-driven modeling of laboratory data are bringing diagnostic precision closer to real-time clinical decision-making. However, current tools remain limited by incomplete understanding of host–pathogen dynamics, variability in biomarker interpretation, and insufficient integration of data into prognostic frameworks.This Research Topic aims to consolidate emerging knowledge on the measurable interface between pathogens and the host immune system. By integrating molecular diagnostics, biomarker discovery, and translational research, it seeks to uncover novel indicators of disease severity, identify prognostic signatures, and establish predictive models that reflect the biological complexity of infection. Key questions include: How does host immune activation differ across pathogen classes? Which biomarkers or gene-expression profiles best predict clinical outcomes? Can machine-learning models trained on routine laboratory data support early risk stratification and therapeutic guidance? Addressing such questions will enhance our ability to detect infection promptly, anticipate complications, and tailor interventions to individual immune responses.The scope of this Research Topic encompasses studies exploring infection biology through clinically actionable laboratory and immune readouts. Submissions may include experimental investigations, clinical studies, computational analyses, and integrated multi-omics approaches. To gather further insights into this interface between diagnostics and immunopathology, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:o Molecular and laboratory diagnostics for viral and bacterial infections, including hepatitis B/D and co-infectionso Host-response biomarkers of infection severity, sepsis, and prognosis (e.g., procalcitonin, ferritin, acute-phase proteins)o Innate immune signaling in infection (e.g., cGAS–STING, NF-κB) and its diagnostic or therapeutic implicationso Infection-triggered hyperinflammation and immune dysregulation (e.g., hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, cytokine storm)o Machine-learning and multi-parameter models using laboratory data for infectious-disease risk stratification and outcome predictiono Vaccine-induced immune correlates of protection against infectious agentso Epigenetic modifications in infection: chromatin remodeling, DNA methylation, and non-coding RNAs as determinants of host susceptibility, disease severity, and therapeutic targetso Metabolic determinants of infectious diseases: from pathogen metabolic fitness and host energetic adaptation to systemic metabolic signatures of disease progression and therapeutic response Topic editors: Hua-Guo Xu, Jianfeng Chen, Huamin Tang, Yuqing Wu Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84462/laboratory-diagnostics-and-host-immune-biomarkers-in-infection-from-pathogen-detection-to-prognostic-modeling