Yao Ming, Zhou Jiali, Zhu Yicheng, Zhang Yinxin, Lv Xia, Sun Ruixue, Shen Ao, Ren Haitao, Cui Liying, Guan Hongzhi, Wu Honglong
Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
Binhai Genomics Institute, Tianjin Translational Genomics Center, BGI-Tianjin, BGI-Shenzhen, Tianjin, China.
J Clin Neurol. 2016 Oct;12(4):446-451. doi: 10.3988/jcn.2016.12.4.446. Epub 2016 Jul 26.
Encephalitis caused by Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) is rare but sometimes fatal. Early diagnosis is difficult using routine cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tests, while next-generation sequencing (NGS) is increasingly being used for the detection and characterization of pathogens.
This study set up and applied unbiased NGS to detect L. monocytogenes in CSF collected from three cases of clinically suspected listeria meningoencephalitis.
Three cases of patients with acute/subacute meningoencephalitis are reported. Magnetic resonance imaging and blood cultures led to a suspected diagnosis of L. monocytogenes, while the CSF cultures were negative. Unbiased NGS of CSF identified and sequenced reads corresponding to L. monocytogenes in all three cases.
This is the first report highlighting the feasibility of applying NGS of CSF as a diagnostic method for central nervous system (CNS) L. monocytogenes infection. Routine application of this technology in clinical microbiology will significantly improve diagnostic methods for CNS infectious diseases.
单核细胞增生李斯特菌（L. monocytogenes）引起的脑炎较为罕见，但有时会致命。使用常规脑脊液（CSF）检测难以进行早期诊断，而新一代测序（NGS）越来越多地用于病原体的检测和特征分析。
本研究建立并应用无偏倚NGS来检测从3例临床疑似李斯特菌性脑膜脑炎患者采集的脑脊液中的单核细胞增生李斯特菌。
报告了3例急性/亚急性脑膜脑炎患者。磁共振成像和血培养导致疑似单核细胞增生李斯特菌诊断，而脑脊液培养为阴性。对脑脊液进行的无偏倚NGS在所有3例中均鉴定并测序了与单核细胞增生李斯特菌相对应的读数。
这是首份强调将脑脊液NGS作为中枢神经系统（CNS）单核细胞增生李斯特菌感染诊断方法的可行性的报告。该技术在临床微生物学中的常规应用将显著改善中枢神经系统传染病的诊断方法。
