Human adenoviruses in paediatric patients with respiratory tract infections in Beijing, China

Abstract

Background Human adenoviruse (HAdV) is a major pathogen of paediatric respiratory tract infections (RTIs). Mutation or recombination of HAdV genes may cause changes in its pathogenicity and transmission. We described the epidemiology and genotypic diversity of HAdV in hospitalized children with RTIs in Beijing, China. Methods Nasopharyngeal aspirates were collected from hospitalized children with RTIs from April 2018 to March 2019. HAdVs were detected by a quantitative real-time PCR, and the hexon gene was used for phylogenetic analysis. Results Among 1572 samples, 90 (5.72%) were HAdV-positive. The HAdV detection rate was highest in November and July. Among HAdV-positive children, 61.11% (55/90) were co-infected with other respiratory viruses, the most common of which were human respiratory syncytial virus and human rhinovirus. The main diagnosis was bronchopneumonia, most patient have cough and fever. Children with a high viral load were more likely to have a high fever (P = 0.041) and elevated WBC count (P = 0.000). Of 55 HAdV-positive specimens, HAdV-B (63.64%), HAdV-C (27.27%), and HAdV-E (9.09%) were main epidemic species. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that hexon sequences of three samples were on the same branch with the recombinant HAdV strain (CBJ113), which was circulating in Beijing since 2016. Conclusion The HAdV-B3 and HAdV-B7 are the main epidemic strains in Beijing, and the recombinant HAdV-C strain CBJ113 has formed an epidemic trend.

The clinical and virological features of two children's coinfections with human adenovirus type 7 and human coronavirus-229E virus

“…The present study found no significant difference in patient age and sex between the mono- and coinfection groups. The median duration of hospital stay in the two groups was generally shorter than eight days, which aligns with information on single adenovirus infections reported from Beijing ( 20 ). This limited data suggest that coinfection with two viruses does not prolong the clearance time of the pathogen, aggravate the host immune response, lead to organ damage, or show more internal and exogenous pyrogen.…”

“…Furthermore, the cases in this study also did not show any liver damage, which differed from other studies that found the adenovirus 41 genotype to lead to hepatitis of unknown origin (39-44). Only one 13-year-old girl, coinfected with adenovirus and HCoV-229E, and one two-year-old boy with adenovirus and mycoplasma, developed mild pneumonia, without any severe (20). In this study, all cases presented mild illness regardless of whether they had a single infection (adenovirus or HCoV-229E) or coinfection with two viruses.…”

“…Finally, two co-infections were isolated from the 24 admitted cases of human adenovirus genotype 7, accounting for 8.33% (2/24) of the total number of cases. This number was far lower than adenovirus coinfected with other pathogens, such as respiratory syncytial virus (19/37, 34.5%) and influenza virus (6/37, 10.9%] ( 20 ). The exact reasons for the coinfections remain unclear, but several factors may have played a role.…”

“…Additional research from Beijing indicated that, among 90 HAdV-positive children, 61.11% (55/90) were coinfected with other respiratory viruses, the most common of which were human respiratory syncytial virus (34.5%) and human rhinovirus (10.9%). The fewest cases of coinfection occurred with adenovirus and HCoV (only 1.8%) ( 20 ). To date, there are no documented adenovirus coinfections with HCoV-229E, so the clinical outcome of this pair of coinfections remains unknown.…”

Seroprevalence of neutralizing antibodies against adenovirus type 26 and 35 in healthy populations from Guangdong and Shandong provinces, China

“…HAdVs are grouped into subgroups A–G ( Madisch et al., 2005 ; Robinson et al., 2013 ; Greber, 2020 ), and more than 104 genotypes of HAdVs have been identified and classified ( http://hadvwg.gmu.edu/ ) according to their chemical and biological properties. HAdVs can infect various tissues and organs ( Ghebremedhin, 2014 ; Lynch and Kajon, 2016 ; Ismail et al., 2018 ) and cause a variety of diseases in humans, including acute upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), conjunctivitis, acute hemorrhagic cystitis, gastroenteritis and meningoencephalitis ( Greber, 2020 ; Huang et al., 2021 ; Pscheidt et al., 2021 ). Although most HAdVs cause only mild or limited infection ( Berciaud et al., 2012 ; Huang et al., 2021 ), a few of them such as HAdV3, HAdV7, and HAdV55 can cause severe infections, especially in particular populations, such as in children, the elderly, and people with severely compromised immune systems ( Kajon et al., 2018 ; Westerberg et al., 2018 ; Otto et al., 2021 ).…”