Circulation of 3 Lineages of a Novel Saffold Cardiovirus in Humans

Abstract

Cardioviruses cause serious disease, mainly in rodents, including diabetes, myocarditis, encephalomyelitis, and multiple sclerosis-like disseminated encephalomyelitis. Recently, a human virus isolate obtained 25 years ago, termed Saffold virus, was sequenced and classifi ed as a cardiovirus. We conducted systematic molecular screening for Saffold-like viruses in 844 fecal samples from patients with gastroenteritis from Germany and Brazil, across all age groups. Six cardioviruses were identifi ed in patients <6 years of age. Viral loads were 283,305-5,044,412,175 copies/g of stool. Co-infections occurred in 4 of 6 children. No evidence for outbreak-like epidemic patterns was found. Phylogenetic analysis identifi ed 3 distinct genetic lineages. Viral protein 1 amino acids were 67.9%-77.7% identical and had a distance of at least 39.4% from known cardioviruses. Because closely related strains were found on 2 continents, global distribution in humans is suspected. Saffold-like viruses may be the fi rst human cardiovirus species to be identifi ed.

Metagenomic sequencing for virus identification in a public-health setting

“…Since its initial discovery in 2007 from a stool sample collected in 1981 in California, USA (Jones et al, 2007), SAFV has been detected in stool and respiratory samples from patients in Europe, North and South America and Asia (Abed & Boivin, 2008;Blinkova et al, 2009;Chiu et al, 2008;Drexler et al, 2008;Liang et al, 2008;Ren et al, 2009;Xu et al, 2009;Zoll et al, 2009). Currently, there are eight SAFV genotypes based on variants of the VP1 protein (SAFV-1-8), which is a determinant of viral tropism and antibody-neutralization sensitivity .…”

“…SAFV has been detected in stool and respiratory-secretion samples from children with gastroenteritis (Chiu et al, 2008; (Abed & Boivin, 2008;Chiu et al, 2008) and non-polio acute flaccid paralysis , as well as in asymptomatic individuals Chiu et al, 2008;Xu et al, 2009;Zoll et al, 2009). In several cases, SAFV has been detected in addition to other viruses known to cause gastroenteritis, thus hindering interpretation regarding SAFV infection and observed pathology (Chiu et al, 2008;Drexler et al, 2008;Ren et al, 2009). SAFV-2 has recently been linked to infection in a child with diarrhoea and vomiting, based on an acute seroconversion event supporting an association between this virus and diarrhoeal disease (Chiu et al, 2010).…”

“…All of the detected SAFV clustered with SAFV-3 sequences from the Netherlands, California and Germany ( Fig. 3) (Chiu et al, 2008;Drexler et al, 2008;Zoll et al, 2009). …”

An opportunistic Pathogen Afforded Ample Opportunities: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus

“…[85,86] Some candidates have progressed to clinical trials. [87,88] The spike protein and RBD elicit neutralizing antibody responses and have been employed as the payload for a number of platforms [84,89,90] including DNA vaccines, [91], modified vaccinia virus Ankara [92,93], measles virus, [93][94][95][96] human-[25, 97] and chimpanzee-adenovirus-based vectors. [95] There are also Venezuelan equine encephalitis replicons expressing nucleocapsid, [97] nanoparticles, [98] and structural and non-structural deletion mutants of MERS-CoV.…”

Genetic Testing of Newborns for Type 1 Diabetes Susceptibility – The MIDIA Study

“…Encephalomyocarditis virus has been shown to induce diabetes in mice, and thelioviruses have been associated with myocarditis, and MS like symptoms in mice (Chiu et al, 2008). Recently, human thelioviruses, termed Saffold virus 1-8, have been discovered (Drexler et al, 2008). There is little known about them, but a serological study shows that SAFV3 are ubiquitous and cause infection early in life (Zoll et al, 2009), but are apparently asymptomatic.…”