Diagnosis of nontuberculous mycobacterial infections using genomics and artificial intelligence-machine learning approaches: scope, progress and challenges.

The nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections cause morbidity and mortality in individuals who are immunocompromised and those with lung conditions. The timely diagnosis of NTM infections is thus the need of the hour for appropriate management of the disease. In this context, genomics has played a pivotal role in diagnosis of NTM by targeting various conserved regions which are useful for species identification and diagnosis. Also, the exploring of whole genome of nontuberculous mycobacteria has made species identification easier and has revolutionized the diagnostic landscape of NTM. The refinement of Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) and the advent of targeted Next Generation Sequencing (tNGS) and metagenomic NGS (mNGS) has helped in bringing down the cost without compromising the quality in NTM diagnostics. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has made NTM diagnosis even easier by analyzing complex genomic data and providing faster results. Thus, this comprehensive review discusses the strides made in genomics and AI based approaches in the diagnosis of NTM infections and the way forward for harnessing this potential to the maximum for the benefit of mankind.