Immunoproteomic identification of biomarkers for diagnosis of legionellosis

Legionnaires' disease is difficult to distinguish from other types of pneumonia due to similar clinical manifestations, and several investigations have demonstrated the inadequacies of current diagnostic tests. This study aims at identifying biomarkers that can be used in an improved test, and, overall, it demonstrates that significant variations exist in the proteomes of Legionella species, which may be responsible for the differential immunogenic reactions observed. Although some proteins have been identified as potential biomarkers, a larger cohort of patients and further genomic information are required to validate the data. Therefore, these exploratory results serve as a basis for advanced research.