Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, 505 S. Hancock St., Louisville, KY, 40202, USA.
Center for Predictive Medicine for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Disease, University of Louisville, 505 S. Hancock St., Louisville, KY, 40202, USA.
Hum Genomics. 2023 Dec 18;17(1):114. doi: 10.1186/s40246-023-00563-8.
Despite a clear appreciation of the impact of human pathogens on community health, efforts to understand pathogen dynamics within populations often follow a narrow-targeted approach and rely on the deployment of specific molecular probes for quantitative detection or rely on clinical detection and reporting.
Genomic analysis of wastewater samples for the broad detection of viruses, bacteria, fungi, and antibiotic resistance genes of interest/concern is inherently difficult, and while deep sequencing of wastewater provides a wealth of information, a robust and cooperative foundation is needed to support healthier communities. In addition to furthering the capacity of high-throughput sequencing wastewater-based epidemiology to detect human pathogens in an unbiased and agnostic manner, it is critical that collaborative networks among public health agencies, researchers, and community stakeholders be fostered to prepare communities for future public health emergencies or for the next pandemic. A more inclusive public health infrastructure must be built for better data reporting where there is a global human health risk burden.
As wastewater platforms continue to be developed and refined, high-throughput sequencing of human pathogens in wastewater samples will emerge as a gold standard for understanding community health.
尽管人们清楚地认识到人类病原体对社区健康的影响，但在了解人群中的病原体动态方面，往往采取狭隘的针对性方法，依赖于特定分子探针的定量检测，或依赖于临床检测和报告。
对废水中感兴趣/关注的病毒、细菌、真菌和抗生素耐药基因进行广泛检测，对基因组进行分析具有内在的难度，尽管对废水进行深度测序提供了丰富的信息，但需要一个强大且协作的基础来支持更健康的社区。除了进一步提高基于废水的高通量测序在非偏见和不可知的方式下检测人类病原体的能力外，还必须促进公共卫生机构、研究人员和社区利益相关者之间的合作网络，为未来的公共卫生紧急情况或下一次大流行做好准备。必须建立一个更具包容性的公共卫生基础设施，以便在存在全球人类健康风险负担的情况下更好地报告数据。
随着废水平台的不断发展和完善，废水中人类病原体的高通量测序将成为了解社区健康的黄金标准。
