From May 18 to May 31, 2023, under the auspices of the Ministry of Commerce of China and the National Health Commission, the "2023 Training Course for Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Officials in African Countries," hosted by Beijing Chest Hospital affiliated with Capital Medical University, was successfully conducted.
On the afternoon of May 29, Dr. Li Xia, Chief Medical Officer of Shengting Medical, attended the sharing session on "Chinese Innovative Solutions for TB Prevention and Control" and presented the theme report "Application of Nanopore Targeted Sequencing (TBseq®) in the Diagnosis of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis." Dr. Li showcased Shengting Medical's advanced third-generation nanopore sequencing technology to an international audience, receiving high acclaim from the organizers.
Initially, Dr. Li outlined the prevalent detection techniques, noting their limitations due to few detection sites and low throughput, which hinder the comprehensive identification of tuberculosis and its drug resistance. Shengting Medical’s TBseq® can process a sample and generate a report within 8 hours. The report details sequence numbers, drug-resistance mutation rates, drug-resistance confidence, and includes five other pathogens (Aspergillus, Cryptococcus neoformans, Pneumocystis jirovecii, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydia psittaci), NAT2 gene polymorphism, and PCR results, offering more complete data and significant clinical insights. (TBseq® has since been upgraded.)
Dr. Li also explained why Shengting Medical adopted third-generation nanopore sequencing, highlighting its significant advantages in species identification and drug resistance detection due to its long reads. Shengting Medical’s proprietary bio-correction technology achieves single-base accuracy of up to 99.8%, which has been a crucial factor in the successful implementation of the project.
In collaboration with numerous tier-three class-A hospitals in China, the consistency with clinical testing has reached as high as 96.9%, and many high-level articles have been published. Additionally, "Expert Consensus on the Application of High Throughput Sequencing Technology in the Diagnosis of Mycobacterial Diseases," co-authored by Shengting Medical, Beijing Chest Hospital, and domestic tuberculosis clinical experts, was successfully published in the Chinese Journal of Infectious Diseases in March. This publication marks the first expert consensus on mycobacteria in China and holds epoch-making significance for clinical application, sample selection, and report interpretation.
Finally, Dr. Li expressed the hope to continue following the World Health Organization's guidelines, promote the development of tuberculosis prevention and control, and make a significant contribution to the global effort to eliminate tuberculosis.
