Cerebrospinal fluid MinION sequencing of 16S rRNA gene for rapid and accurate diagnosis of bacterial meningitis

Bacterial meningitis causes substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide.Rapid identification of the microorganisms is essential for early initiation of appropriate antimicrobial therapy, thereby improving clinical outcome. Yet routine diagnostic methods fail to identify the bacteria in the majority of patients. Over the last decade, advanced sequencing technologies have greatly improved our capacity to detect the causative agents of infectious diseases in clinical samples.Of these, the single molecule real-time sequencing developed by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) is a promising tool for diagnostic setting because of its short turnaround time.

This letter describes rapid 16S rRNA nanopore sequencing on the MinION, for accurate identification of the causative agent(s) of bacterial meningitis, in a clinical setting.