| 1. |
- Iheozor-Ejiofor, Rommel, et al.
(författare)
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Neutralizing Antibody Titers in Hospitalized Patients with Acute Puumala Orthohantavirus Infection Do Not Associate with Disease Severity
- 2022
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Ingår i: Viruses. - : MDPI. - 1999-4915. ; 14:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Nephropathia epidemica (NE), a mild form of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), is an acute febrile illness caused by Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV). NE manifests typically with acute kidney injury (AKI), with a case fatality rate of about 0.1%. The treatment and management of hantavirus infections are mainly supportive, although neutralizing monoclonal antibodies and immune sera therapeutics are under investigation. In order to assess the potential use of antibody therapeutics in NE, we sought to determine the relationship between circulating PUUV neutralizing antibodies, PUUV nucleocapsid protein (N) IgG antibodies, and viral loads with markers of disease severity. The study included serum samples of extensively characterized patient cohorts (n = 116) from Tampere University Hospital, Finland. The results showed that upon hospitalization, most patients already had considerable neutralizing and anti-PUUV-N IgG antibody levels. However, contrary to expectations, neutralizing antibody titers from the first day of hospitalization did not appear to protect from AKI or correlate with more favorable disease outcomes. This indicates that further studies are needed to investigate the applicability of neutralizing antibodies as a therapy for hospitalized NE patients.
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| 2. |
- Ling, Jiaxin, et al.
(författare)
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Evolution and postglacial colonization of Seewis hantavirus with Sorex araneus in Finland
- 2018
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Ingår i: Infection, Genetics and Evolution. - : Elsevier BV. - 1567-1348 .- 1567-7257. ; 57, s. 88-97
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Hantaviruses have co-existed with their hosts for millions of years. Seewis virus (SWSV), a soricomorph-borne hantavirus, is widespread in Eurasia, ranging from Central Siberia to Western Europe. To gain insight into the phylogeography and evolutionary history of SWSV in Finland, lung tissue samples of 225 common shrews (Sorex araneus) trapped from different parts of Finland were screened for the presence of SWSV RNA. Forty-two of the samples were positive. Partial small (S), medium (M) and large (L) segments of the virus were sequenced, and analyzed together with all SWSV sequences available in Genbank. The phylogenetic analysis of the partial S-segment sequences suggested that all Finnish SWSV strains shared their most recent common ancestor with the Eastern European strains, while the L-segment suggested multiple introductions. The difference between the Land S-segment phylogenies implied that reassortment events play a role in the evolution of SWSV. Of the Finnish strains, variants from Eastern Finland occupied the root position in the phylogeny, and had the highest genetic diversity, supporting the hypothesis that SWSV reached Finland first form the east. During the spread in Finland, the virus has formed three separate lineages, identified here by correlation analysis of genetic versus geographic distance combined with median-joining network analysis. These results support the hypothesis that Finnish SWSV recolonized Finland with its host, the common shrew, from east after the last ice age 12,000-8000 years ago, and then subsequently spread along emerging land bridges towards west or north with the migration and population expansion of its host.
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| 3. |
- Ling, Jiaxin, et al.
(författare)
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Genetic analyses of Seoul hantavirus genome recovered from rats (Rattus norvegicus) in the Netherlands unveils diverse routes of spread into Europe
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Medical Virology. - : WILEY. - 0146-6615 .- 1096-9071. ; 91:5, s. 724-730
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Seoul virus (SEOV) is the etiologic agent of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. It is carried by brown rats (Rattus norvegicus), a commensal rodent that closely cohabitates with humans in urban environments. SEOV has a worldwide distribution, and in Europe, it has been found in rats in UK, France, Sweden, and Belgium, and human cases of SEOV infection have been reported in Germany, UK, France, and Belgium. In the search of hantaviruses in brown rats from the Netherlands, we found both serological and genetic evidence for the presence of SEOV in the local wild rat population. To further decipher the relationship with other SEOV variants globally, the complete genome of SEOV in the Netherlands was recovered. SEOV sequences obtained from three positive rats (captured at close trapping locations at the same time) were found highly similar. Phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that two lineages of SEOV circulate in Europe. Strains from the Netherlands and UK, together with the Baxter strain from US, constitute one of these two, while the second includes strains from Europe and Asia. Our results support a hypothesis of diverse routes of SEOV spread into Europe. These findings, combined with other indications on the expansion of the spatial European range of SEOV, suggest an increased risk of this virus for the public health, highlighting the need for increased surveillance.
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| 4. |
- Ling, Jiaxin, et al.
(författare)
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Introduction and Dispersal of Sindbis Virus from Central Africa to Europe
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Virology. - : AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY. - 0022-538X .- 1098-5514. ; 93:16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bird-hosted viruses have the potential to be transported over large areas of the world and to be transmitted in distant geographical regions. Sindbis virus (SINV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus that is locally amplified in a bird-mosquito enzootic cycle and distributed all over the Old World and Australia/Oceania. Sindbis virus genotype I (SINV-I) is the cause of disease outbreaks in humans in South Africa as well as in northern Europe. To trace the evolutionary history and potential strain-disease association of SINV-I, we sequenced 36 complete genomes isolated from field material in Europe, as well as in Africa and the Middle East, collected over 58 years. These were analyzed together with 30 additional published whole SINV-I genomes using Bayesian analysis. Our results suggested that SINV-I was introduced only once to northern Europe from central Africa, in the 1920s. After its first introduction to Sweden, it spread east and southward on two separate occasions in the 1960s and 1970s. Another introduction from central Africa to southern/central Europe seems to have occurred, and where these two introductions meet, one recombination event was detected in central Europe. In addition, another recombinant strain was found in central Africa, where the most divergent SINV-I strains also originated. IMPORTANCE This study shows that only a single introduction of SINV into a new geographical area is required for spread and establishment, provided that the requisite vector(s) and reservoir(s) of epizootological and epidemiological importance are present. Furthermore, we present the first report of recombination between two strains of SINV in nature. Our study increases the knowledge on new introductions and dispersal of arboviruses in general and of SINV in particular.
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| 5. |
- Sironen, Tarja, et al.
(författare)
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Fatal Puumala Hantavirus Disease : Involvement of Complement Activation and Vascular Leakage in the Pathobiology
- 2017
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Ingår i: Open Forum Infectious Diseases. - : Oxford University Press. - 2328-8957. ; 4:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The case-fatality rate of hantavirus disease depends strongly on the causative hantavirus, ranging from 0.1% to 40%. However, the pathogenesis is not fully understood, and at present no licensed therapies exist. We describe fatal cases caused by Puumala hantavirus indicating involvement of complement activation and vascular leakage.
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| 6. |
- Voutilainen, Liina, et al.
(författare)
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Life-long shedding of Puumala hantavirus in wild bank voles (Myodes glareolus)
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of General Virology. - : Society for General Microbiology. - 0022-1317 .- 1465-2099. ; 96:6, s. 1238-1247
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The knowledge of viral shedding patterns and viraemia in the reservoir host species is a key factorin assessing the human risk of zoonotic viruses. The shedding of hantaviruses (familyBunyaviridae) by their host rodents has widely been studied experimentally, but rarely in naturalsettings. Here we present the dynamics of Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) shedding and viraemia innaturally infected wild bank voles (Myodes glareolus). In a monthly capture–mark–recapturestudy, we analysed 18 bank voles for the presence and relative quantity of PUUV RNA in theexcreta and blood from 2 months before up to 8 months after seroconversion. The proportion ofanimals shedding PUUV RNA in saliva, urine and faeces peaked during the first month afterseroconversion, but continued throughout the study period with only a slight decline. The quantityof shed PUUV in reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) positive excreta was constantover time. In blood, PUUV RNA was present for up to 7 months but both the probability of viraemiaand the virus load declined with time. Our findings contradict the current view of a decline in virusshedding after the acute phase and a short viraemic period in hantavirus infection – anassumption widely adopted in current epidemiological models. We suggest the life-long sheddingas a means of hantaviruses to survive over host population bottlenecks, and to disperse infragmented habitats where local host and/or virus populations face temporary extinctions. Ourresults indicate that the kinetics of pathogens in wild hosts may differ considerably from thoseobserved in laboratory settings.
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