Ocular Metagenomics Next Generation Sequencing
Sara Taghizadeh1 , Seyed Farzad Mohammadi1 *
- Translational Ophthalmology Research Center, Farabi Eye Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences
Abstract: Insights in the ocular microbiome are still at an early stage and numerous more questions stay unanswered compared with other human-associated microbial communities. The current information on the human microbiome changed our viewpoint on microscopic organisms and human health and altogether improved our understanding of human pathophysiology. Moreover ocular medicine, microbiome research might impact treatment. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing could be a capable strategy for pathogen discovery that combines progressed genome sequencing innovation with cutting-edge bioinformatics to analyze microbial populations. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing has the potential to recognize uncommon, unculturable, and indeed already unidentified pathogens from a clinical isolate. Of particular interest to ophthalmology, this strong information extraction can happen from exceptionally little volume clinical samples. Here we discuss the opportunities and limitations of this technique and its current and future application to ophthalmic diagnostics.
Methods: Review of the peer-reviewed literature on conventional and advanced methods as applied to the diagnosis of infectious diseases of the eye.
Results: NGS is a novel technology for identifying the pathogens responsible for ocular infections with the potential to improve the accuracy and speed of diagnosis and hasten the selection of the best therapy. NGS has proved to have the potential to dramatically improve the detection of infectious organisms and treatment. NGS can be used to address multiple questions regarding different pathogens. Unbiased metagenomics evaluation directly based on clinical samples remains prohibitively expensive.
Conclusion: So, the cost of the testing needs to be further reduced to make NGS as acceptable as a routine test in the clinical microbiological laboratory. In addition to the cost, Time delays are critical for most ocular infectious diseases, especially for those with a high likelihood of causing blindness. This delay must be decreased if management and outcomes are to be advanced. More clinical data will have to be collected for further evaluation of NGS applications in ocular infections. Perhaps many unknown pathogens highlighted by NGS studies that are not listed in the database library may become clinically relevant as new discoveries and guidelines become available.
