Differentiation complex sputum microbiome in patients suspected TB pulmonary

<b>Purpose: </b>This is the first study to attempt microbiome diversity using metagenomic full-length 16S rRNA from respiratory specimens suspected of chronic pulmonary TB patients.<br /> <b>Materials and methods:</b> A 33 patients with suspected chronic pulmonary TB were included. Sputum specimens were cultured to detect <i>mycobacterium sp.</i> and extracted using QiAmp DNA mini kit modification and 16S rRNA metagenomic sequencing by nanopore grid ion sequencer. Microbiome analysis was performed using Pavian and Krona tools.<br /> <b>Results: </b>9 patients were diagnosed with TB based on GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay, and 3 patients were detected with NTM pulmonary infection.The common genera identified from TB culture positive patients were <i>streptococcus sp.</i>, <i>prevotella sp., </i>and <i>veilonella sp. </i>However, less was detected in two NTM infection patients<i>. </i>Metagenomic analysis revealed community bacteria species, including mycobacterium tuberculosis and NTM species, with the lowest number of unique reads. The abundance of <i>streptococcus sp.</i> were less than 30% in 4 patient with comorbid diabetes mellitus.<br /> <b>Conclusions:</b> Metagenomic targeted 16SrRNA full-length sequencing in the clinical respiratory specimen can provide diagnostic insight beyond standard microbiologic cultures and detailed profiling of microbial communities at the species level.