ArticleThorax2021
Circulating microbial cell-free DNA is associated with inflammatory host-responses in severe pneumonia.
Article in Thorax, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Blood-based targeted sequencing of microbial cell-free DNA in severe pneumonia-associated sepsis.Respiratory research · 2026Article
- The bug, the burden, and the biology: beyond host-centric phenotyping in sepsis.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Microbial lung-to-blood translocation associates with systemic inflammation in severe pneumonia: evidence from paired plasma and lower respiratory tract metagenomics.Intensive care medicine experimental · 2026Article
- Refining the Clinical Utility of Plasma Microbial Cell-Free DNA Sequencing in High-Risk Population of Infection: A Narrative Review.Infection and drug resistance · 2026Review
- In-matrix library preparation for metagenomic sequencing of microbial cell-free DNA.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2025Article
- The origin of circulating microbial DNA in the blood: where does it come from?Annals of medicine · 2025Review
- The authors reply.Critical care medicine · 2025Article
- Plasma Levels of Soluble ST2 Reflect Extrapulmonary Organ Dysfunction and Predict Outcomes in Acute Respiratory Failure.Critical care medicine · 2025Observational
- Longitudinal multicompartment characterization of host-microbiota interactions in patients with acute respiratory failure.Nature communications · 2024Article
- "Now We Got Bad Blood": Beyond Phenotype Labels in an "Era" of Meta-omics in Critical Illness.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2024Article
- Noninvasive diagnosis of secondary infections in COVID-19 by sequencing of plasma microbial cell-free DNA.iScience · 2023Article
- Cell-Free DNA DetectsAmerican journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2023Article
- Article
- Circulating Microbial Cell-Free DNA in Health and Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Forty Years of Molecular Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2022Review
- A Paired Comparison of Plasma and Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid for Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing in Critically Ill Patients with Suspected Severe Pneumonia.Infection and drug resistance · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Host inflammatory responses predict worse outcome in severe pneumonia, yet little is known about what drives dysregulated inflammation. We performed metagenomic sequencing of microbial cell-free DNA (mcfDNA) in 83 mechanically ventilated patients (26 culture-positive, 41 culture-negative pneumonia, 16 uninfected controls). Culture-positive patients had higher levels of mcfDNA than those with culture-negative pneumonia and uninfected controls (p<0.005). Plasma levels of inflammatory biomarkers (fractalkine, procalcitonin, pentraxin-3 and suppression of tumorigenicity-2) were independently associated with mcfDNA levels (adjusted p<0.05) among all patients with pneumonia. Such host-microbe interactions in the systemic circulation of patients with severe pneumonia warrant further large-scale clinical and mechanistic investigations.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.