Nat. Biotechnol. 37, 783–792 (2019)
Lower respiratory tract infection pathogens can be identified rapidly using nanopore metagenomic sequencing.
Lower respiratory tract infections are treated initially using broad-spectrum antibiotics, as culture techniques to allow a specific diagnosis take too long. This can result in incorrect therapy and the development of antibiotic resistance.
Researchers in the UK have developed a metagenomic nanopore sequencing pipeline in which human DNA is first removed from infected individuals’ sputum before analysis so that bacterial DNA can be identified. The pipeline takes 6 hours and so allows imminent correct diagnosis and therapy selection in the clinical setting.
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Stower, H. Rapid lower respiratory tract infectious diagnosis. Nat Med 25, 1189 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0552-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0552-x