IFNG and infection: None of the septic patients matched with the averaged spectrum of healthy donors, while the spectra of septic patients significantly matched with IFN-γ and IL-10 spectra regardless of whether the infection was documented (n = 6) or not (n = 6), confirming that sepsis is characterized by both inflammatory and immunoregulatory features (Fig. 5 and Additional file 1: Figure S1).