A revolutionary new method to characterise infections
Jun 6, 2014 10:57:39 GMT
Post by s162216 on Jun 6, 2014 10:57:39 GMT
A research paper has recently been published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" describing the use of revolutionary "next generation sequencing" to detect a leptospirosis infection in the cerbospinal fluid (CSF) of a 14 year old buy with severe combined immunodeficiency (which had been previously treated with two bone marrow transplants), which was subsequently successfully treated. The person had been admitted to hospital several times over a period of 4 months with fever and headaches, but the symptoms appeared to self resolve every time until on the final occasion where they progressed to hydrocephalus ("water on the brain" - a build-up of fluid on the brain which exerts pressure) and fitting, necessitating a medically induced coma.
Normal diagnostic tests did not reveal anything of significance, and it was eventually decided to utilise "next generation sequencing" on samples of the patients CSF and serum. This "sequenced" the genetic makeup of the samples, and running the results through genetic databases demonstrated matches to bacterium of the Leptospiraceae family in the CSF. Leptospirosis infection is very difficult to detect by standard methods, and the decision was taken to begin treatment with targeted antibiotics against leptospirosis, which was highly successful and resulted in a complete recovery for the patient. The leptospirosis infection was later confirmed by other more standardised methods such as PCR and conventional "Sanger sequencing".
You can read the paper for free on the "New England Journal of Medicine's" wesbite HERE. If anyone has any questions then post them here and I'll try and use my professional (Pharmacology) knowledge to answer them.
Sam
Normal diagnostic tests did not reveal anything of significance, and it was eventually decided to utilise "next generation sequencing" on samples of the patients CSF and serum. This "sequenced" the genetic makeup of the samples, and running the results through genetic databases demonstrated matches to bacterium of the Leptospiraceae family in the CSF. Leptospirosis infection is very difficult to detect by standard methods, and the decision was taken to begin treatment with targeted antibiotics against leptospirosis, which was highly successful and resulted in a complete recovery for the patient. The leptospirosis infection was later confirmed by other more standardised methods such as PCR and conventional "Sanger sequencing".
You can read the paper for free on the "New England Journal of Medicine's" wesbite HERE. If anyone has any questions then post them here and I'll try and use my professional (Pharmacology) knowledge to answer them.
Sam