Targeted next-generation sequencing (tNGS): An upcoming application for pathogen identification in clinical diagnosis.

J Infect Public Health

Department of Laboratory Medicine, Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Hubei Province, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, China; School of Laboratory Medicine, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan 430065, China; Hubei Provincial Center for t

Published: October 2025


Category Ranking

98%

Total Visits

921

Avg Visit Duration

2 minutes

Citations

20

Article Abstract

Rapid and efficient detection of pathogens is a goal for clinical laboratories. Traditional methods such as post-culture identification, smear microscopy, antigen-antibody detection, and polymerase chain reaction cannot perform hundreds of high-throughput tests simultaneously. With the development of genetic engineering, next-generation sequencing technology has gradually been introduced into clinical testing. The new technology of targeted next-generation sequencing (tNGS) has the advantages of high sensitivity, high efficiency, and relatively low cost. This review of articles on tNGS published in the past two decades summarizes tNGS workflow and clinical applications, compares it with traditional culture and metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS), and highlights its role in detecting multiple pathogens in mixed infections and drug-resistance genes. It also elaborates on the latest guidelines and the quality control process. By highlighting the practical clinical use of tNGS, it offers insights for optimizing the detection of multiple pathogens in polymicrobial infections to enhance diagnostic accuracy and efficiency.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2025.102936DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

next-generation sequencing
16
targeted next-generation
8
sequencing tngs
8
multiple pathogens
8
tngs
5
clinical
5
sequencing
4
tngs upcoming
4
upcoming application
4
application pathogen
4

Similar Publications

Background: Most RNA-seq datasets harbor genes with extreme expression levels in some samples. Such extreme outliers are usually treated as technical errors and are removed from the data before further statistical analysis. Here we focus on the patterns of such outlier gene expression to investigate whether they provide insights into the underlying biology.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Metatranscriptomics-based metabolic modeling of patient-specific urinary microbiome during infection.

NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes

September 2025

Research Group Medical Systems Biology, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein Campus Kiel, 24105 Kiel University, Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections and are increasingly complicated by multidrug resistance (MDR). While Escherichia coli is frequently implicated, the contribution of broader microbial communities remains less understood. Here, we integrate metatranscriptomic sequencing with genome-scale metabolic modeling to characterize active metabolic functions of patient-specific urinary microbiomes during acute UTI.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Severe pneumonia, as a critical and prevalent condition of the respiratory system, poses a significant threat to patient survival and health outcomes. This article focuses on the similarities and differences between community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP)/ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). There is significant divergence in the predominant pathogens between severe community-acquired pneumonia (SCAP) and HAP/VAP.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Gut microbiome and rheumatoid arthritis: Revisiting the gut-joint axis.

Int Immunopharmacol

September 2025

School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India.

Over the past few decades, the scientific perspective on gut microbiota has undergone a profound transformation, particularly with the emergence and advancement of microbiome research. Next-generation sequencing technologies have emerged as a foundational tool in microbiome research, facilitating comprehensive characterization of microbial communities across diverse sample types and ecological niches. Significant alterations in gut microbiota composition have been observed in disease states compared to healthy individuals, suggesting a direct association between gut dysbiosis and host health status.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of metagenomic next-generation sequencing(mNGS) using Nanopore sequencing technology (NST) versus traditional culture methods in infectious disease cases.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, single-center observational study comparing clinical outcomes between patients and specimen types in NST group and those in culture-based control group. Cox Proportional Hazards regression and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis were conducted to evaluate the association between diagnostic strategy and 28-day mortality.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF