Adenoviruses

Abstract

In 1953, Rowe and colleagues described an “adenoid degeneration agent” that induced spontaneous deterioration of tissue cultures prepared from adenoids of children. In the mid1960s, human adenoviruses (HAdV) were found to cause tumors in rodents, prompting studies that revealed fundamental processes of molecular biology but failed to link the virus convincingly to human cancer. HAdV belong to the Adenoviridae family, Mastadenovirus genus. Adenoviruses are large, nonenveloped, icosahedral viruses 70 to 90 nm in diameter. Adenovirus infections can be epidemic, endemic, or sporadic, with the pattern of circulation, specific syndrome, and severity varying by type, population, and route of exposure. Adenovirus‐associated gastroenteritis is caused primarily by types 40 and 41 of species HAdV‐F, which are also known as the “enteric adenoviruses.”