Metagenomic and Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing in Infectious Disease Diagnostics: Current Applications, Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Metagenomic and targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies are rapidly transforming diagnosis and management for infectious diseases. This review comprehensively examines the current applications of metagenomic NGS (mNGS) and targeted NGS (tNGS) in clinical microbiology, highlighting their roles in pathogen detection, antimicrobial resistance profiling, virulence characterization, and outbreak investigation—particularly in complex cases such as pneumonia, critical illness with pulmonary infections, and pediatric acute respiratory illnesses. We discuss the diagnostic performance, advantages, and limitations of these approaches, including challenges related to sensitivity, specificity, standardization, bioinformatic complexity, and cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, we explore emerging opportunities for integrating NGS-based surveillance with public health strategies, such as wastewater epidemiology, to monitor healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at the population level. Finally, we outline key steps needed to translate these powerful genomic tools from research settings into routine clinical and public health practice.