scholarly journals A cell-free DNA metagenomic sequencing assay that integrates the damage response to infection

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Pellan Cheng ◽  
Philip Burnham ◽  
John Richard Lee ◽  
Matthew Pellan Cheng ◽  
Manikkam Suthanthiran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urinary Tract ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Metagenomic Sequencing ◽  
Kidney Transplant Recipients ◽  
Bladder Tissue ◽  
Cell Free Dna ◽  
Free Dna

ABSTRACTHigh-throughput metagenomic sequencing offers an unbiased approach to identify pathogens in clinical samples. Conventional metagenomic sequencing however does not integrate information about the host, which is often critical to distinguish infection from infectious disease, and to assess the severity of disease. Here, we explore the utility of high-throughput sequencing of cell-free DNA after bisulfite conversion to map the tissue and cell types of origin of host-derived cell-free DNA, and to profile the bacterial and viral metagenome. We applied this assay to 51 urinary cfDNA isolates collected from a cohort of kidney transplant recipients with and without bacterial and viral infection of the urinary tract. We find that the cell and tissue types of origin of urinary cell-free DNA can be derived from its genome-wide profile of methylation marks, and strongly depend on infection status. We find evidence of kidney and bladder tissue damage due to viral and bacterial infection, respectively, and of the recruitment of neutrophils to the urinary tract during infection. Through direct comparison to conventional metagenomic sequencing as well as clinical tests of infection, we find this assay accurately captures the bacterial and viral composition of the sample. The assay presented here is straightforward to implement, offers a systems view into bacterial and viral infections of the urinary tract, and can find future use as a tool for the differential diagnosis of infections.

scholarly journals A cell-free DNA metagenomic sequencing assay that integrates the host injury response to infection

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (37) ◽  
pp. 18738-18744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Pellan Cheng ◽  
Philip Burnham ◽  
John Richard Lee ◽  
Matthew Pellan Cheng ◽  
Manikkam Suthanthiran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urinary Tract ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Metagenomic Sequencing ◽  
Kidney Transplant Recipients ◽  
Bladder Tissue ◽  
Cell Free Dna ◽  
Free Dna

High-throughput metagenomic sequencing offers an unbiased approach to identify pathogens in clinical samples. Conventional metagenomic sequencing, however, does not integrate information about the host, which is often critical to distinguish infection from infectious disease, and to assess the severity of disease. Here, we explore the utility of high-throughput sequencing of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) after bisulfite conversion to map the tissue and cell types of origin of host-derived cfDNA, and to profile the bacterial and viral metagenome. We applied this assay to 51 urinary cfDNA isolates collected from a cohort of kidney transplant recipients with and without bacterial and viral infection of the urinary tract. We find that the cell and tissue types of origin of urinary cfDNA can be derived from its genome-wide profile of methylation marks, and strongly depend on infection status. We find evidence of kidney and bladder tissue damage due to viral and bacterial infection, respectively, and of the recruitment of neutrophils to the urinary tract during infection. Through direct comparison to conventional metagenomic sequencing as well as clinical tests of infection, we find this assay accurately captures the bacterial and viral composition of the sample. The assay presented here is straightforward to implement, offers a systems view into bacterial and viral infections of the urinary tract, and can find future use as a tool for the differential diagnosis of infection.

scholarly journals Separating the signal from the noise in metagenomic cell-free DNA sequencing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Burnham ◽  
Nardhy Gomez-Lopez ◽  
Michael Heyang ◽  
Alexandre Pellan Cheng ◽  
Joan Sesing Lenz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amniotic Fluid ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
False Positive Rate ◽  
Normal Pregnancy ◽  
True Positive Rate ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Metagenomic Sequencing ◽  
Cell Free Dna ◽  
Free Dna ◽  
Positive Rate

Abstract Background: Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in blood, urine and other biofluids provides a unique window into human health. A proportion of cfDNA is derived from bacteria and viruses, creating opportunities for the diagnosis of infection via metagenomic sequencing. The total biomass of microbial-derived cfDNA in clinical isolates is low, which makes metagenomic cfDNA sequencing susceptible to contamination and alignment noise. Results: Here, we report Low Biomass Background Correction (LBBC), a bioinformatics noise filtering tool informed by the uniformity of the coverage of microbial genomes and the batch variation in the absolute abundance of microbial cfDNA. We demonstrate that LBBC leads to a dramatic reduction in false positive rate while minimally affecting the true positive rate for a cfDNA test to screen for urinary tract infection. We next performed high throughput sequencing of cfDNA in amniotic fluid collected from term uncomplicated pregnancies or those complicated with clinical chorioamnionitis with and without intra-amniotic infection. Conclusions: The data provide unique insight into the properties of fetal and maternal cfDNA in amniotic fluid, demonstrate the utility of cfDNA to screen for intra-amniotic infection, support the view that the amniotic fluid is sterile during normal pregnancy, and reveal cases of intra-amniotic inflammation without infection at term.

scholarly journals Separating the signal from the noise in metagenomic cell-free DNA sequencing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Burnham ◽  
Nardhy Gomez-Lopez ◽  
Michael Heyang ◽  
Alexandre Pellan Cheng ◽  
Joan Sesing Lenz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amniotic Fluid ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
False Positive Rate ◽  
Normal Pregnancy ◽  
True Positive Rate ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Metagenomic Sequencing ◽  
Cell Free Dna ◽  
Free Dna ◽  
Positive Rate

Abstract Background: Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in blood, urine and other biofluids provides a unique window into human health. A proportion of cfDNA is derived from bacteria and viruses, creating opportunities for the diagnosis of infection via metagenomic sequencing. The total biomass of microbial-derived cfDNA in clinical isolates is low, which makes metagenomic cfDNA sequencing susceptible to contamination and alignment noise. Results: Here, we report Low Biomass Background Correction (LBBC), a bioinformatics noise filtering tool informed by the uniformity of the coverage of microbial genomes and the batch variation in the absolute abundance of microbial cfDNA. We demonstrate that LBBC leads to a dramatic reduction in false positive rate while minimally affecting the true positive rate for a cfDNA test to screen for urinary tract infection. We next performed high throughput sequencing of cfDNA in amniotic fluid collected from term uncomplicated pregnancies or those complicated with clinical chorioamnionitis with and without intra-amniotic infection. Conclusions: The data provide unique insight into the properties of fetal and maternal cfDNA in amniotic fluid, demonstrate the utility of cfDNA to screen for intra-amniotic infection, support the view that the amniotic fluid is sterile during normal pregnancy, and reveal cases of intra-amniotic inflammation without infection at term.

scholarly journals Investigation of the Plasma Virome from Cases of Unexplained Febrile Illness in Tanzania from 2013 to 2014: a Comparative Analysis between Unbiased and VirCapSeq-VERT High-Throughput Sequencing Approaches

mSphere ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon H. Williams ◽  
Samuel Cordey ◽  
Nishit Bhuva ◽  
Florian Laubscher ◽  
Mary-Anne Hartley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Positive Selection ◽  
High Throughput ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Febrile Illness ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Barr Virus ◽  
Outbreak Investigations ◽  
Epstein Barr

ABSTRACT High-throughput sequencing can provide insights into epidemiology and medicine through comprehensive surveys of viral genetic sequences in environmental and clinical samples. Here, we characterize the plasma virome of Tanzanian patients with unexplained febrile illness by using two high-throughput sequencing methods: unbiased sequencing and VirCapSeq-VERT (a positive selection system). Sequences from dengue virus 2, West Nile virus, human immunodeficiency virus type 1, human pegivirus, and Epstein-Barr virus were identified in plasma. Both sequencing strategies recovered nearly complete genomes in samples containing multiple viruses. Whereas VirCapSeq-VERT had better sensitivity, unbiased sequencing provided better coverage of genome termini. Together, these data demonstrate the utility of high-throughput sequencing strategies in outbreak investigations. IMPORTANCE Characterization of the viruses found in the blood of febrile patients provides information pertinent to public health and diagnostic medicine. PCR and culture have historically played an important role in clinical microbiology; however, these methods require a targeted approach and may lack the capacity to identify novel or mixed viral infections. High-throughput sequencing can overcome these constraints. As the cost of running multiple samples continues to decrease, the implementation of high-throughput sequencing for diagnostic purposes is becoming more feasible. Here we present a comparative analysis of findings from an investigation of unexplained febrile illness using two strategies: unbiased high-throughput sequencing and VirCapSeq-VERT, a positive selection high-throughput sequencing system.

scholarly journals Structure and diversity of urinary cell-free DNA informative of host-pathogen interactions in human urinary tract infection

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Burnham ◽  
Darshana Dadhania ◽  
Michael Heyang ◽  
Fanny Chen ◽  
Lars F. Westblade ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urinary Tract ◽  
Growth Dynamics ◽  
Transplant Recipients ◽  
Kidney Transplant Recipients ◽  
Cell Free Dna ◽  
Pathogen Dynamics ◽  
Free Dna ◽  
Versatile Tool ◽  
Tract Infections ◽  
Viral Components

AbstractInfections of the urinary tract are the most common form of infection in the human population. Here, we tested the utility of urinary cell-free DNA (cfDNA) to comprehensively monitor host and pathogen dynamics in the scope of bacterial and viral urinary tract infections. We assayed cfDNA isolated from 141 urine samples obtained from a cohort of 82 kidney transplant recipients by next-generation sequencing. We find that urinary cfDNA simultaneously informs about the composition of the bacterial and viral components of the microbiome, antimicrobial susceptibility, bacterial growth dynamics, kidney allograft injury, and the host response to infection. These different layers of information are accessible from a single assay and individually agree with corresponding clinical tests based on quantitative PCR, conventional bacterial culture, and urinalysis. In addition, cfDNA reveals the frequent occurrence of pathologies that remain undiagnosed in conventional diagnostic workups. Our work identifies urinary cfDNA as a highly versatile tool to monitor infections of the urinary tract.

scholarly journals Separating the signal from the noise in metagenomic cell-free DNA sequencing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Burnham ◽  
Nardhy Gomez-Lopez ◽  
Michael Heyang ◽  
Alexandre Pellan Cheng ◽  
Joan Sesing Lenz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amniotic Fluid ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
False Positive Rate ◽  
Normal Pregnancy ◽  
True Positive Rate ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Metagenomic Sequencing ◽  
Cell Free Dna ◽  
Free Dna ◽  
Positive Rate

ABSTRACTCell-free DNA (cfDNA) in blood, urine and other biofluids provides a unique window into human health. A proportion of cfDNA is derived from bacteria and viruses, creating opportunities for the diagnosis of infection via metagenomic sequencing. The total biomass of microbial-derived cfDNA in clinical isolates is low, which makes metagenomic cfDNA sequencing susceptible to contamination and alignment noise. Here, we report Low Biomass Background Correction (LBBC), a bioinformatics noise filtering tool informed by the uniformity of the coverage of microbial genomes and the batch variation in the absolute abundance of microbial cfDNA. We demonstrate that LBBC leads to a dramatic reduction in false positive rate while minimally affecting the true positive rate for a cfDNA test to screen for urinary tract infection. We next performed high throughput sequencing of cfDNA in amniotic fluid collected from term uncomplicated pregnancies or those complicated with clinical chorioamnionitis with and without intra-amniotic infection. The data provide unique insight into the properties of fetal and maternal cfDNA in amniotic fluid, demonstrate the utility of cfDNA to screen for intra-amniotic infection, support the view that the amniotic fluid is sterile during normal pregnancy, and reveal cases of intra-amniotic inflammation without infection at term.

scholarly journals The use of plasma donor-derived, cell-free DNA to monitor acute rejection after kidney transplantation

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 714-721 ◽  
Author(s):  
Els M Gielis ◽  
Kristien J Ledeganck ◽  
Amélie Dendooven ◽  
Pieter Meysman ◽  
Charlie Beirnaert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acute Rejection ◽  
Serum Creatinine ◽  
Characteristic Curve ◽  
Area Under The Curve ◽  
Threshold Value ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Kidney Transplant Recipients ◽  
Cell Free Dna ◽  
Free Dna ◽  
Set Up

Abstract Background After transplantation, cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) derived from the donor organ (ddcfDNA) can be detected in the recipient’s circulation. We aimed to investigate the role of plasma ddcfDNA as biomarker for acute kidney rejection. Methods From 107 kidney transplant recipients, plasma samples were collected longitudinally after transplantation (Day 1 to 3 months) within a multicentre set-up. Cell-free DNA from the donor was quantified in plasma as a fraction of the total cell-free DNA by next generation sequencing using a targeted, multiplex polymerase chain reaction-based method for the analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms. Results Increases of the ddcfDNA% above a threshold value of 0.88% were significantly associated with the occurrence of episodes of acute rejection (P = 0.017), acute tubular necrosis (P = 0.011) and acute pyelonephritis (P = 0.032). A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed an equal area under the curve of the ddcfDNA% and serum creatinine of 0.64 for the diagnosis of acute rejection. Conclusions Although increases in plasma ddcfDNA% are associated with graft injury, plasma ddcfDNA does not outperform the diagnostic capacity of the serum creatinine in the diagnosis of acute rejection.

Circulating microbial cell-free DNA is associated with inflammatory host-responses in severe pneumonia

Thorax ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. thoraxjnl-2020-216013
Author(s):  
Haopu Yang ◽  
Ghady Haidar ◽  
Nameer S Al-Yousif ◽  
Haris Zia ◽  
Daniel Kotok ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Inflammatory Responses ◽  
Severe Pneumonia ◽  
Systemic Circulation ◽  
Microbial Cell ◽  
Metagenomic Sequencing ◽  
Cell Free Dna ◽  
Free Dna ◽  
Culture Positive ◽  
Culture Negative

Host inflammatory responses predict worse outcome in severe pneumonia, yet little is known about what drives dysregulated inflammation. We performed metagenomic sequencing of microbial cell-free DNA (mcfDNA) in 83 mechanically ventilated patients (26 culture-positive, 41 culture-negative pneumonia, 16 uninfected controls). Culture-positive patients had higher levels of mcfDNA than those with culture-negative pneumonia and uninfected controls (p<0.005). Plasma levels of inflammatory biomarkers (fractalkine, procalcitonin, pentraxin-3 and suppression of tumorigenicity-2) were independently associated with mcfDNA levels (adjusted p<0.05) among all patients with pneumonia. Such host–microbe interactions in the systemic circulation of patients with severe pneumonia warrant further large-scale clinical and mechanistic investigations.

Anti-viral properties of interferon beta treatment in patients with multiple sclerosis

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Hong ◽  
M V Tejada-Simon ◽  
V M Rivera ◽  
Y CQ Zang ◽  
J Z Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Treatment Efficacy ◽  
Interferon Beta ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Human Herpesvirus ◽  
Virion Protein ◽  
Cell Free Dna ◽  
Free Dna

Viral infections are potentially associated with the etiology and pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS). It has been speculated that the treatment efficacy of interferon beta (IFN beta) in MS may relate to its anti-viral properties. The study was undertaken to evaluate the in vivo anti-viral effects of IFN beta-1a in patients with MS. Human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) was studied as an example for being a latent neurotropic virus. IFN beta used at concentrations of approximately 0.5 mg/ml was shown to significantly reduce in vitro HHV-6 replication in a susceptible T-cell line. Sera derived from 23 MS patients treated with IFN beta-1a were examined for serum cell-free DNA of HHV-6 as an indicator for viral replication and the reactivity of IgM antibodies to a recombinant HHV-6 virion protein containing a known immunoreactive region. The results were compared with those of control sera obtained from untreated MS (n=29) and healthy individuals (n=21). The findings indicated that IFN beta treatment significantly reduced HHV-6 replication as evident by decreased cell-free DNA in treated MS specimens. The results correlated with decreased IgM reactivity to the HHV-6 antigen in treated MS patients compared to untreated controls, suggesting reduced exposure to HHV-6. The findings were confirmed in paired sera obtained from seven MS patients before and after the treatment. The study provides new evidence indicating that IFN beta has potent in vivo anti-viral effects that may contribute to the treatment efficacy in MS.

scholarly journals DISMIR: a deep learning-based cancer-detection method by integrating DNA sequence and methylation information of individual cell-free DNA reads

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaqi Li ◽  
Lei Wei ◽  
Xianglin Zhang ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Haochen Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Dna Sequence ◽  
Cancer Detection ◽  
High Throughput Sequencing ◽  
Detection Method ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Sequencing Data ◽  
Cell Free Dna ◽  
Free Dna ◽  
Novel Approach

ABSTRACTDetecting cancer signals in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) high-throughput sequencing data is emerging as a novel non-invasive cancer detection method. Due to the high cost of sequencing, it is crucial to make robust and precise prediction with low-depth cfDNA sequencing data. Here we propose a novel approach named DISMIR, which can provide ultrasensitive and robust cancer detection by integrating DNA sequence and methylation information in plasma cfDNA whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) data. DISMIR introduces a new feature termed as “switching region” to define cancer-specific differentially methylated regions, which can enrich the cancer-related signal at read-resolution. DISMIR applies a deep learning model to predict the source of every single read based on its DNA sequence and methylation state, and then predicts the risk that the plasma donor is suffering from cancer. DISMIR exhibited high accuracy and robustness on hepatocellular carcinoma detection by plasma cfDNA WGBS data even at ultra-low sequencing depths. Analysis showed that DISMIR tends to be insensitive to alterations of single CpG sites’ methylation states, which suggests DISMIR could resist to technical noise of WGBS. All these results showed DISMIR with the potential to be a precise and robust method for low-cost early cancer detection.

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