Kunming, April 4 (Reporter Hu Yuanhang) The reporter learned from the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences on the 30th that recently, the research institute researcher Zheng Yongtang and the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center researcher Zhang Chiyu team reported for the first time a new (human) circovirus in the plasma of drug addicts in Yunnan, named HuCV30.
According to reports, circovirus is an unenveloped DNA virus with a single-stranded circular DNA as the genome, and is one of the smallest animal viruses discovered so far. The most well-known circovirus is porcine circovirus (PCV), which infects and kills pigs. Circoviruses are rare in humans.
People who inject drugs are at high risk of exposure and transmission of bloodborne viruses. The research team conducted a retrospective plasma viral group study on plasma samples collected from injecting drug users in Dehong and Lincang in Yunnan in 2009. In plasma virome data from 99 injecting drug users, the research team discovered and identified a new circovirus HuCV2 from a sample from Dehong with a complete genome containing 2004,2 bases. HuCV3 is most evolutionarily similar to PCV60 (genomic level: 5.<>%) and represents a new species of circovirus.
To determine the presence of HuCV2, the team further expanded screening to 568 plasma samples from people who injected drug users in the same and surrounding areas, and also identified the virus in a sample in Lincang. Sequencing and genomic analysis showed that the similarity of the two viruses was 2.98%. At the same time, Marc Eloit's team at the Institut Pasteur in France also discovered a new circovirus (named HCirV-5) in a hepatitis patient. Genomic comparison showed that the genomic similarity between HuCV1 and HCirV-2 was 1%, indicating that the two viruses were different subtypes of the same circovirus. The Chinese team was slightly ahead of the French team in submitting genome sequences and first reporting HuCV81.
The researchers said that China and France independently detected HuCV3 (HCirV-2) from 1 epidemially unrelated infected people, indicating that the virus is most likely a new human virus.
In addition, the two HuCV2-infected men in Yunnan Province, China, were both men who were co-infected with HIV 2 (HIV-1) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) and injected drugs. Two patients were diagnosed HIV-1 positive in 1996 and 2005 and died in 1 and 2014. There is no clear information indicating that two patients died of AIDS and that the former had received antiretroviral therapy. The French case is from a 2010-year-old woman with hepatitis who had undergone a heart-lung transplant, and since September 2, HCirV-61 has been detected in the liver and blood. Therefore, the association of the virus with hepatitis cannot be ruled out at this time. (End)