mNGS CSF Test Outperforms Traditional Microbiological Testing for Infectious Diseases
Posted on 28 Jun 2025
Traditional, targeted tests for pathogen identification offer a frustrating guessing game with too many tests and too few answers. Identifying a pathogen is only the first part of the story. Knowing detailed information about the virus can signal to a physician whether a patient’s infection is linked to an outbreak, carries unusual risks, or requires a change in management, crucial information when treating a patient with serious infections. Now, new research shows that a metagenomic sequencing (mNGS) test can deliver broader, deeper pathogen identification as compared to traditional methods.
Delve Bio (Boston, MA, USA) has developed Delve Detect, which offers genomic testing of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for more than 68,000 pathogens with a 48-hour turnaround time. Delve Detect analyzes all nucleic acids in a sample – RNA and DNA – directly from the site of infection to accurately identify the pathogens present and deliver more comprehensive microbial analysis than conventional testing. This groundbreaking infectious disease test is also capable of viral subtyping for select pathogens from sequence data analyzed through its proprietary bioinformatics pipeline, Delve Decide. Data from more than 4,800 patients tested over seven years, representing the largest study of mNGS CSF testing, has shown that mNGS delivered the highest diagnostic yield of any test, directly identifying more pathogens than all other testing methods (culture, antigen testing, PCR) combined.
More recently, data from a comparative study of Delve Detect CSF with a traditional PCR-based meningitis/encephalitis (ME) panel was presented at the latest American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Microbe conference. The study reanalyzed samples from a diverse patient cohort previously tested using the ME panel. The data showed that mNGS can be used in conjunction with microbiological testing to increase diagnostic yield by identifying pathogens that are not detectable with traditional, pathogen-specific panel testing. The inclusion of mNGS tests like Delve Detect, which has a 48-hour turnaround time, can shorten time to diagnosis, enabling clinicians to initiate targeted therapies sooner.
“Delve Bio’s metagenomic sequencing technology enables clinicians to identify the cause of serious central nervous system infections when existing methods do not deliver a diagnosis and speed is critical,” said Brad Murray, chief executive officer of Delve Bio. “We’re working to make this technology more widely available to neurologists, infectious disease physicians and laboratory teams so they can get patients the answers they need.”
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