Host-Filtered Blood Nucleic Acids for Pathogen Detection: Shared Background, Sparse Signal, and Methodological Limits.

ABSTRACT: Plasma cell-free RNA (cfRNA) metagenomics is increasingly explored for blood-based pathogen detection, but the structure of the shared background "blood microbiome", the reproducibility of reported signals, and the practical limits of this approach remain unclear. We performed a critical re-analysis and benchmarking ("stress test") of host-filtered blood RNA sequencing data from two cohorts: a bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis (TB) cohort (n = 51) previously used only to derive host cfRNA signatures, and a coronary artery disease (CAD) cohort (n = 16) previously reported to show a CAD-shifted "blood microbiome" enriched for periodontal taxa. Both datasets were processed with a unified pipeline combining stringent human read removal and taxonomic profiling using the lat

SUBMITTER: Wang Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12845112 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature