Photo Credit: Kittiphat Abhiratvorakul
The following is a summary of “Construction of a pathogenic microorganism detection method based on third-generation nanopore sequencing data,” published in the February 2025 issue of Infectious Disease by Mai et al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to examine methods for detecting pathogenic microorganisms due to their role in infections, allergies, tumors, and other diseases.
They developed a bioinformatics pipeline to detect pathogenic microorganisms. A comprehensive reference database of nucleic acids from pathogenic microorganisms was constructed. Nanopore sequencing of metagenomic data from 40 individuals (with lower respiratory tract infection symptoms) was conducted, followed by sequence alignment analysis. The similarity, abundance, and matching length of sequences were integrated to derive a comprehensive parameter, all ratio, which effectively identified pathogenic microorganisms.
The results showed that pathogens were identified in 23 out of 40 samples using the method, matching previous methods (pathogen identification via microbiological culture and a metagenomic pipeline). Additionally, pathogens such as Streptococcus pneumoniae and Granulicatella adiacens were detected in five samples where previous methods failed. In 12 samples, pathogens like Streptococcus pneumoniae and Neisseria flavescens were identified, suggesting possible infections involving 2 or more microorganisms.
Investigators concluded that the method efficiently identified pathogenic microorganisms, even in samples where other methods failed, thus offering a valuable supplement to existing diagnostic techniques.
Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-025-10559-5
