Infective endocarditis is a life-threatening infection of heart valves and adjacent structures characterized by vegetations on valves and other endocardial surfaces, with tissue destruction and risk of embolization.~The clinical variability, including the heterogeneous response to infection and the different antibiotic treatments make the identification of the underlying pathogens of infective endocarditis (IE) is critical for precision therapy. Virulence factors mediate tissue adherence, host infiltration, immune resistance/evasion, and dynamic stress responses and confer enhanced pathogen survival, proliferation, and host invasion in animal models of infective endocarditis.~To identify the microorganism and simultaneously considered the response of the host to the infection could improve the management of the infective endocarditis.
The hypothesis underlying this work is the identification of different sub phenotypes of patients with infective endocarditis through the study of the host's response to infection.~Furthemore, metagenomic sequencing may be a helpful supplement to IE diagnostic, especially when conventional tests fail to yield a diagnosis.