A portable nanopore sequencing-based assay for rapid diagnosis of bloodstream infection

Sepsis causes millions of deaths globally each year and is the most common cause of death in people who have been hospitalized. The number of new cases worldwide of sepsis is estimated to be 18 million cases per year.

The conventional laboratory diagnosis for sepsis relies on blood culture-based method. The time interval between blood sample collection and the availability of final laboratory results is about 48-96 hours. However, it should be noted that the risk of death from sepsis increased by 6% to 10% for every hour of delay in administration of effective antibiotics. The long turnaround time of conventional diagnosis procedures leaves the clinicians with limited information to enable clinical decisions during the critical phase of infection.

PolyU researchers a novel diagnostic assay, based on Oxford Nanopore sequencing, that can accurately identify bacterial or fungal pathogens and their drug resistance determinants from peripheral blood samples without the need of the time-consuming blood culture. The entire workflow can be completed within the same day as blood collection (~6-8 hours). It provides a quick guidance for clinicians to timely initiate tailor-made treatment regimen without inducing resistance for patients with sepsis.