New to MyHealth?
Manage Your Care From Anywhere.
Access your health information from any device with MyHealth. You can message your clinic, view lab results, schedule an appointment, and pay your bill.
ALREADY HAVE AN ACCESS CODE?
DON'T HAVE AN ACCESS CODE?
NEED MORE DETAILS?
MyHealth for Mobile
Phage diversity in cell-free DNA identifies bacterial pathogens in human sepsis cases.
Phage diversity in cell-free DNA identifies bacterial pathogens in human sepsis cases. Nature microbiology Haddock, N. L., Barkal, L. J., Ram-Mohan, N., Kaber, G., Chiu, C. Y., Bhatt, A. S., Yang, S., Bollyky, P. L. 2023Abstract
Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, have great specificity for their bacterial hosts at the strain and species level. However, the relationship between the phageome and associated bacterial population dynamics is unclear. Here we generated a computational pipeline to identify sequences associated with bacteriophages and their bacterial hosts in cell-free DNA from plasma samples. Analysis of two independent cohorts, including a Stanford Cohort of 61 septic patients and 10 controls and the SeqStudy cohort of 224 septic patients and 167 controls, reveals a circulating phageome in the plasma of all sampled individuals. Moreover, infection is associated with overrepresentation of pathogen-specific phages, allowing for identification of bacterial pathogens. We find that information on phage diversity enables identification of the bacteria that produced these phages, including pathovariant strains of Escherichia coli. Phage sequences can likewise be used to distinguish between closely related bacterial species such as Staphylococcus aureus, a frequent pathogen, and coagulase-negative Staphylococcus, a frequent contaminant. Phage cell-free DNA may have utility in studying bacterial infections.
View details for DOI 10.1038/s41564-023-01406-x
View details for PubMedID 37308590
View details for PubMedCentralID 5594678