In search of a candidate pathogen for giant cell arteritis: sequencing-based characterization of the giant cell arteritis microbiome.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To characterize the microbiome of the temporal artery in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA), and to apply an unbiased and comprehensive shotgun sequencing-based approach to determine whether there is an enrichment of candidate pathogens in the affected tissue.

Methods

Temporal artery biopsy specimens were collected from patients at a single institution over a period of 4 years, and unbiased DNA sequencing was performed on 17 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded specimens. Twelve of the 17 patients fulfilled the clinical and histopathologic criteria for GCA, and the other 5 patients served as controls. Using PathSeq software, human DNA sequences were computationally subtracted, and the remaining non-human DNA sequences were taxonomically classified using a compre

SUBMITTER: Bhatt AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4113339 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature