Sensitive, flexible, and affordable serum RNA sequencing for pathogen detection on the Oxford Nanopore platform
Abstract
Metagenomic sequencing for pathogen detection has traditionally suffered from low sensitivity due to the overwhelming presence of host nucleic acids. Commercial host-depletion kits are often prohibitively expensive and limited to specific species, hindering adoption in resource-limited settings, where the burden of zoonotic diseases is highest. To address this, we optimized and combined Sequence-Independent Single Primer Amplification (SISPA) with Depletion of Abundant Sequences by Hybridization (DASH), establishing a low-cost metagenomic protocol on the Oxford Nanopore sequencing platform. Our approach can be adapted to any species to detect microbial RNAs in serum samples at PCR-range sensitivity, outperforming existing methods in the field.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
Fecal contamination and water quality
Salmonella and Campylobacter epidemiology
Publication details
- Journal / source
- BMC Genomics
- Publisher
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 188–188
- Publication date
- 12 February 2026
- Language
- EN