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Bacteriophage DNA in blood provides species-level insight into bacterial infections

We characterized the cell-free DNA of bacteria and bacteriophages circulating in blood plasma of two cohorts of individuals with sepsis and uninfected controls. We found that the circulating phageome enables the identification of the bacterial pathogen with species-level resolution.

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Fig. 1: Phage profiles distinguish infection with S. aureus and CoNS.

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This is a summary of: Haddock, N. L. et al. Phage diversity in cell-free DNA identifies bacterial pathogens in human sepsis cases. Nat. Microbiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01406-x (2023).

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Bacteriophage DNA in blood provides species-level insight into bacterial infections. Nat Microbiol 8, 1386–1387 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01422-x

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