Circulating microbial cell-free DNA is associated with inflammatory host-responses in severe pneumonia.
Host inflammatory responses predict worse outcome in severe pneumonia, yet little is known about what drives dysregulated inflammation. We performed metagenomic sequencing of microbial cell-free DNA (mcfDNA) in 83 mechanically ventilated patients (26 culture-positive, 41 culture-negative pneumonia, 16 uninfected controls). Culture-positive patients had higher levels of mcfDNA than those with culture-negative pneumonia and uninfected controls (p<0.005). Plasma levels of inflammatory biomarkers (fractalkine, procalcitonin, pentraxin-3 and suppression of tumorigenicity-2) were independently associated with mcfDNA levels (adjusted p<0.05) among all patients with pneumonia. Such host-microbe interactions in the systemic circulation of patients with severe pneumonia warrant further large-scale clinical and mechanistic investigations.
['Yang|Haopu|H|http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6858-1778', 'Haidar|Ghady|G|', 'Al-Yousif|Nameer S|NS|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2657-2360', 'Zia|Haris|H|', 'Kotok|Daniel|D|', 'Ahmed|Asim A|AA|', 'Blair|Lily|L|', 'Dalai|Sudeb|S|', 'Bercovici|Sivan|S|', 'Ho|Carine|C|', 'McVerry|Bryan J|BJ|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1175-4874', 'Morris|Alison|A|', 'Kitsios|Georgios D|GD|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1018-948X']
pneumonia