On the old story of the accidental pathogen: can transcriptomics clarify how S. epidermidis becomes virulent?

Abstract

Background: Staphylococcus epidermidis is a commensal inhabitant of healthy human skin and mucosae that can originate important infections such as medical device-associated bloodstream infections, often associated to patients with impaired or undeveloped immune systems. Of concern, the current inability to discriminate between true bacteraemia caused by S. epidermidis and contaminated blood cultures often leads to misdiagnosis, resulting in a significant increase in patient morbidity and in healthcare costs. Until now, several genetic and phenotypic approaches were not able to identify any specific marker that clearly distinguishes commensal from isolates that cause infection. Hence, our goal was to identify possible RNA-based molecular markers for the diagnosis of S. epidermidis infections, a strategy never reported before.