ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical Infectious Diseases
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1638215
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring Clinical Application Scenarios of Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing for Pathogen DiagnosisView all 9 articles
Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing Facilitates Precision Treatment and Prognostic Improvement in Pulmonary Cryptococcosis
Provisionally accepted
- The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: The early diagnosis of pulmonary cryptococcosis (PC) remains challenging due to the low sensitivity and prolonged turnaround time of conventional diagnostic methods. Despite the broad-spectrum pathogen detection capability of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS), its clinical utility in the diagnosis and therapeutic management of pulmonary cryptococcosis remains underexplored. Methods: In this retrospective study, 31 patients diagnosed with Cryptococcus infection through mNGS at The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University between July 2023 to March 2025 were included. data on clinical characteristics, treatment regimens, and patient prognosis were systematically collected. Results: Compared to conventional pathogen detection methods, mNGS demonstrated superior sensitivity, shorter turnaround time (1.00 d vs. 4.50 d, p=0.002), and significantly reduced interval from admission to clinical decision-making (3.50 d vs. 9.00 d, p=0.002). Among 31 patients with mNGS-identified cryptococcal infection, only 12 underwent fungal culture, with merely 1 case yielding positive results (positivity rate: 8.33%). Antimicrobial therapy was optimized for all patients based on mNGS findings. During post-discharge follow-up of 27 cases, 1 patient experienced disease recurrence, 1 died from tumor metastasis, and 1 was lost to follow-up. Conclusion: Our retrospective analysis revealed that mNGS facilitated treatment optimization, improved clinical outcomes, and provided crucial evidence supporting the precision management of pulmonary cryptococcosis.
Keywords: Pulmonary cryptococcosis, metagenomic next-generation sequencing, diagnosis, Treatment, prognosis
Received: 30 May 2025; Accepted: 01 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Miao, Chen, Ye, Kangli and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yang Kangli, fccyangkl@zzu.edu.cn
Hongmin Wang, fccwanghm@zzu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.