High Throughput Sequencing for Clinical Tuberculosis: An Overview

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Genomics
• Infectious Diseases

Background:

• High throughput sequencing (HTS) offers a powerful tool for pathogen identification.
• Tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis remains a critical global health challenge.
• Current diagnostic methods for TB have limitations in speed and comprehensiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the clinical applications of HTS for diagnosing Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections.
• To analyze the strengths and limitations of various HTS platforms and analytical tools.
• To provide a framework for future innovations in HTS-based TB diagnostics.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of studies on HTS for TB diagnosis.
• Analysis of workflow challenges, platform capabilities, and bioinformatics tools.
• Synthesis of current evidence on HTS performance in clinical settings.

Main Results:

• HTS can simultaneously detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA and infer drug susceptibility.
• Various HTS platforms exhibit different strengths and limitations regarding cost, speed, and sensitivity.
• Bioinformatics tools are crucial for accurate data analysis and interpretation.

Conclusions:

• HTS holds significant promise for revolutionizing TB diagnostics by enabling rapid, comprehensive analysis.
• Addressing workflow challenges and optimizing analytical pipelines are key for widespread clinical adoption.
• Further research and development are needed to fully realize the potential of HTS in TB management.