Circulation of 3 lineages of a novel Saffold cardiovirus in humans.
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 classified 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 identified 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 identified 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 first human cardiovirus species to be identified.
Drexler
Jan Felix
JF
Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil.
Luna
Luciano Kleber de Souza
LK
Stöcker
Andreas
A
Almeida
Patrícia Silva
PS
Ribeiro
Tereza Cristina Medrado
TC
Petersen
Nadine
N
Herzog
Petra
P
Pedroso
Célia
C
Huppertz
Hans Iko
HI
Ribeiro
Hugo da Costa
Hda C
Baumgarte
Sigrid
S
Drosten
Christian
C