{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,16]],"date-time":"2026-10-16T22:19:18Z","timestamp":1792189158909,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,18]],"date-time":"2025-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1758153600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background and Objective<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      <jats:italic>Pneumocystis jirovecii<\/jats:italic>\n                      pneumonia (PjP) remains an important cause of morbimortality worldwide, and differentiating\n                      <jats:italic>Pneumocystis jirovecii<\/jats:italic>\n                      (\n                      <jats:italic>P. jirovecii<\/jats:italic>\n                      ) infection from\n                      <jats:italic>P. jirovecii<\/jats:italic>\n                      colonization (PjC) is crucial for guiding treatment strategies. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction-based targeted next-generation sequencing (mp-tNGS) is a promising tool for identifying lower respiratory tract infections, with a detectable pathogen spectrum that covers more than 95% of clinical infectious cases. This study evaluated mp-tNGS for\n                      <jats:italic>P. jirovecii<\/jats:italic>\n                      identification in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) samples combined with serum 1,3-\u03b2-D-glucan (BDG) level detection to differentiate PjP and PjC.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A total of 73 patients were enrolled and the final diagnosis was used as a reference criterion, and patients were divided into the PjP group and PjC group. The clinical data and detection performance of mp-tNGS\/serum BDG were analyzed.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The median fungal reads (normalized sequence counts) detected by mp-tNGS were 1522.00 (interquartile range [IQR], 581.5, 4898.0) in the PjP group versus 117.00 (IQR, 79.00, 257.00) in the PjC group (\n                      <jats:italic>p &amp;lt;<\/jats:italic>\n                      0.0001). Correspondingly, BDG levels were 122.5 (88.75,239.3) pg\/ml in PjP patients compared to 59.00 (51.0,79.0) pg\/ml in PjC patients (\n                      <jats:italic>p &amp;lt;<\/jats:italic>\n                      0.0001). Area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUROC) for discriminating PjP from colonization was 0.935 (95% CI: 0.88\u20130.99) for BALF mp-tNGS and 0.822 (95% CI: 0.72\u20130.93) for serum BDG. The optimal diagnostic thresholds were determined to be 355 reads for mp-tNGS (sensitivity: 89.1%; specificity: 85.2%) and 84.5 pg\/ml for BDG (sensitivity: 85.2%; specificity: 80.4%).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      BALF mp-tNGS and serum BDG serve as valuable adjunct diagnostic tools, providing reliable differentiation between\n                      <jats:italic>P. jirovecii<\/jats:italic>\n                      colonization and active infection.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcimb.2025.1611391","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,18]],"date-time":"2025-09-18T12:27:23Z","timestamp":1758198443000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Combined multiplex polymerase chain reaction-based targeted next\u2212generation sequencing and serum 1, 3-\u03b2-D-glucan for differential diagnosis of Pneumocystis pneumonia and Pneumocystis colonization"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"15","author":[{"given":"Hansheng","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiao","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaofeng","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qizhen","family":"Cao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yi","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fang","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yunyun","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yanhui","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yijun","family":"Tang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tao","family":"Ren","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Meifang","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2386","DOI":"10.1093\/jac\/dkw156","article-title":"ECIL guidelines for the diagnosis of Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia in patients with haematological Malignancies and stem cell transplant recipients","volume":"71","author":"Alanio","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. 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