Metagenomic approach to examine respiratory samples from children with lower respiratory tract infections. LUTRI

Viruses are the most frequent cause of respiratory disease in children. However, despite the advanced diagnostic methods currently in use, in 20 to 50% of respiratory samples a specific pathogen cannot be detected. This observation has led investigators to wonder if novel respiratory viruses are still to be discovered. In this work, we used a metagenomic approach to examine respiratory samples from children that required hospital admission due to lower respiratory tract infections (pneumonia) in six hospitals, located in four cities of different states of Mexico. The samples had been previously found negative for 6 bacteria and 15 respiratory viruses by PCR. DNA reads for at least one virus commonly associated to respiratory infections was found in 20 of 25 hospitalized patients, while reads for pathogenic respiratory bacteria were detected in the remaining 5 children. Respiratory syncytial virus, coronavirus-OC43, and rhinovirus were identified as well as less frequently viruses associated to respiratory infections as anellovirus, rotavirus, astrovirus, sevelal animal and plant viruses. No novel viruses were identified.