Complete Coding Sequence of the Alkhurma Virus, a Tick-Borne Flavivirus Causing Severe Hemorrhagic Fever in Humans in Saudi Arabia

Complete genome characterization of Rocio virus (Flavivirus: Flaviviridae), a Brazilian flavivirus isolated from a fatal case of encephalitis during an epidemic in São Paulo state

“…In terms of phylogenetic classification, between the two phylogenetically related viruses, ROCV and ILHV, the nucleotide sequence identity (72.5 %) of the full-length NS5 gene nucleotide sequence (Table 2) demonstrated in this study strongly supports recognition of those viruses as two distinct species, if the species criterion (species defined by .84 % nucleotide sequence identity based on the 39-terminal 1 kb sequence of NS5) previously established for all flavivirus species (Kuno et al, 1998) could be applied to complete NS5 gene sequences as well. Actually, quantitative criteria based on evolutionary distance of a particular gene, such as above, have been used to improve classification of tick-borne flaviviruses (Charrel et al, 2001) and for demarcation of strains and species (Van Regenmortel et al, 1997). Also, biologically, although both ROCV and ILHV are neurotropic, the former has been often associated with epidemics of encephalitis, while the latter has been associated only with sporadic febrile illness with minor neurological abnormalities, clearly reflecting significant differences in neurovirulence and transmissibility (Vasconcelos et al, 1992(Vasconcelos et al, , 1998.…”

Sequence signatures in envelope protein may determine whether flaviviruses produce hemorrhagic or encephalitic syndromes

“…The one available sequence of the Alkhumra genotype of KFDV [11,28], which has been inappropriately called Alkhurma virus [29], underwent multiple serial passages during which mutation may have occurred. The recently reported [4] OHFV sequence (Q14F59) from strain Bogolubovka not only has Asp-67 but is unexpectedly over 3% different from complete envelope protein sequences described as being from strain ''Bogoluvovska'' (Q7T6D2, Q06061) and strain Kublin (Q6JJM0), which are more than 99% identical.…”

“…The taxonomic groups were defined based on the ICTVdB nomenclature (http://www.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/ICTVdb/Ictv/fs_flavi.htm) of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses [10], and on current research indicating that Alkhumra virus is a subtype of Kyasanur forest disease virus (KFDV) [11] and louping ill and related viruses are subtypes of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) [4]. The designation as H-virus or E-virus in Table 1 refers to the pathology encountered in the most severe cases.…”

Alkhurma Hemorrhagic Fever Virus

“…Virüsün genomu, 10248 nükleotid uzunluğun-dadır ve 3416 aminoasitten oluşan tek poliproteini kodlar [11] . Genom, üç yapısal (Capsid, C; Prekürsör membran, prM ve zarf E) ve yedi tane yapısal olmayan (NS1, NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, NS4B ve NS5) proteinleri ve uzun açık okuma çerçevesini (ORF) kodlar ve bu bölge kene kaynaklı flavivirüslerin tümünde aynı uzunluktadır [12] .…”

“…maktadır [17] . Bununla birlikte, virüsün hayatta kalmasını ve çoğalmasını belirleyen ekolojik koşullar KFDV için AHFV'ye göre çok daha farklıdır [18] .…”