Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 23, 2025

Metagenomic Analysis of Silage
08:43

Metagenomic Analysis of Silage

Published on: January 13, 2017

18.4K

Clinical metagenomics-challenges and future prospects

Maliha Batool1, Jessica Galloway-Peña1

  • 1Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States.

Frontiers in Microbiology
|July 14, 2023
PubMed

Insights

Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) offers a sensitive approach for diagnosing rare infections. However, challenges in sensitivity, cost, and standardization must be addressed for widespread clinical adoption.

Area of Science:

  • Infectious Diseases
  • Genomics
  • Clinical Diagnostics

Background:

  • Undiagnosed infections pose significant risks, leading to mortality and long-term health consequences.
  • Current diagnostic methods often fail to identify rare, novel, or complex causative pathogens.
  • A universal diagnostic strategy is crucial to reduce the burden of undocumented infections.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review the efficacy and limitations of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in diagnosing severe infections.
  • To compare mNGS with conventional diagnostic methods.
  • To propose strategies for optimizing mNGS as a clinical diagnostic tool.

Main Methods:

  • Culture-independent analysis using metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS).
  • Review of existing studies and case reports on mNGS in clinical diagnosis.
  • Examination of mNGS performance metrics including sensitivity, specificity, and cost-effectiveness.

Main Results:

  • mNGS demonstrates high sensitivity in detecting rare, novel, and unexpected pathogens without prior assumptions.
  • Studies confirm mNGS's effectiveness in improving clinical diagnosis for various infections.
  • Limitations include challenges in sensitivity, specificity, cost, bioinformatic pipeline standardization, and result interpretation.

Conclusions:

  • mNGS is a powerful tool for identifying the causes of undiagnosed infections.
  • Addressing current limitations is essential for integrating mNGS into routine clinical practice.
  • Further development is needed to maximize mNGS's potential in diagnosing severe infections.
Keywords:
diagnosticsmeningitismetagenomicsnext-generation sequencingsepsis

More Related Videos

Purifying the Impure: Sequencing Metagenomes and Metatranscriptomes from Complex Animal-associated Samples11:23

Purifying the Impure: Sequencing Metagenomes and Metatranscriptomes from Complex Animal-associated Samples

Published on: December 22, 2014

37.3K
A Clinical Metaproteomics Workflow Implemented within Galaxy Bioinformatics Platform to Analyze Host-Microbiome Interactions Underlying Human Disease09:52

A Clinical Metaproteomics Workflow Implemented within Galaxy Bioinformatics Platform to Analyze Host-Microbiome Interactions Underlying Human Disease

Published on: January 10, 2025

656

Related Concept Videos

Modern Molecular Taxonomy01:29

Modern Molecular Taxonomy

Advancements in molecular biology have revolutionized the identification and characterization of bacteria, with multiple methods leveraging DNA sequencing for enhanced precision. As sequencing technologies improve and costs decline, these approaches are increasingly used in clinical, environmental, and evolutionary studies.Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) examines several housekeeping genes, essential chromosomal genes encoding cellular functions, to distinguish strains. Approximately...
53
Genomics02:02

Genomics

Genomics is the science of genomes: it is the study of all the genetic material of an organism. In humans, the genome consists of information carried in 23 pairs of chromosomes in the nucleus, as well as mitochondrial DNA. In genomics, both coding and non-coding DNA is sequenced and analyzed. Genomics allows a better understanding of all living things, their evolution, and their diversity. It has a myriad of uses: for example, to build phylogenetic trees, to improve productivity and...
36.5K
Microorganisms in Medicine and Therapeutics01:29

Microorganisms in Medicine and Therapeutics

Microorganisms play a fundamental role in vaccine development, gene therapy, and therapeutic production. Their biological properties are harnessed to advance medicine and public health. Beyond immunization, microorganisms contribute to gut health, antibiotic synthesis, and genetic disease treatment.Live Attenuated and Inactivated VaccinesLive attenuated vaccines, such as the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, utilize weakened forms of pathogens to closely resemble natural infections.
62
Next-generation Sequencing03:00

Next-generation Sequencing

The first human genome sequencing project cost $2.7 billion and was declared complete in 2003, after 15 years of international cooperation and collaboration between several research teams and funding agencies. Today, with the advent of next-generation sequencing technologies, the cost and time of sequencing a human genome have dropped over 100 fold.
Next-Generation Sequencing Methods
Although all next-generation methods use different technologies, they all share a set of standard features....
91.6K
Applications of Molecular Taxonomy01:20

Applications of Molecular Taxonomy

Molecular taxonomy has revolutionized the understanding and classification of bacteria, providing precise insights into their diversity, evolutionary relationships, and ecological roles. By utilizing molecular techniques such as DNA sequencing and fingerprinting, researchers have made significant strides in various fields related to bacterial studies.Resolving Taxonomic AmbiguitiesMolecular taxonomy has been instrumental in distinguishing closely related bacterial species initially thought to...
42
MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry01:19

MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry

Mass spectrometry is a powerful characterization technique that can identify and separate a wide variety of compounds ranging from chemical to biological entities, based on their mass-to-charge ratio (m/z). The instruments that allow this detection, known as mass spectrometers, have three components: an ion source, a mass analyzer, and a detector. These spectrometers differ based on the nature of their ion source and analyzers.
Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) is a commonly...
5.0K