For the future of medicine, clinicians and scientists at Children's Hospital Los Angeles look to our genes, according to a new study.

‘Sequencing technology can really have a positive clinical impact on patients. Agnostic, genomic assays could be soon integrated into routine clinical care.’
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Personalized medicine has expanded its capabilities as technology has grown. Scientists are now using a technology called metagenomic next-generation sequencing, or mNGS, to rapidly test clinical samples. This powerful assay can quickly compare unknown genetic material from a patient sample against thousands of known pathogen genomes. Read More..





"Basically, we can determine the cause of the disease, whether it's a virus, bacteria, or something else," says Jeffrey Bender, MD, a physician specializing in infectious diseases at CHLA. "If it has genetic material, this test can identify the infection and provide information that allows us to select a treatment specific to fight it."
Now that science has the capability to sequence and compare genomes, it is becoming clear that genomic testing can, and should be, used to identify infectious pathogens. This is especially important in diseases that could stem from multiple potential causes. For example, meningitis and encephalitis are serious central nervous system conditions that often arise from infection. Proper and timely diagnoses of these infections are critical so that patients can receive treatments before complications develop.
But many types of pathogens - bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites - can cause meningitis and encephalitis, making targeted testing difficult. Though laboratories can test samples for a handful of possible culprits, there is a limit to the number of pathogens they can test for at one time. Negative results can delay treatments and leave doctors, patients, and families searching for answers.
Now, clinicians at CHLA and sites nationwide are showing that broader genetic testing can deliver answers that standard laboratory tests fail to provide. Instead of one particular target, mNGS testing quickly compares sample genetic material to thousands of targets. Dr. Bender and Jennifer Dien Bard, PhD, Director of the Clinical Microbiology and Virology Laboratory at CHLA, participated in a multi-center clinical trial to evaluate the clinical use of mNGS testing in pediatric patients with suspected meningitis or encephalitis.
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Samples were then analyzed using either standard laboratory testing or mNGS. Out of 58 total diagnoses, sequencing identified 13 infections - more than 20% - that were not detected in standard clinical testing.
Source-Eurekalert