title: Novel human astroviruses: Novel human diseases?
abstract: Astroviruses are small, non-enveloped, single-stranded positive RNA viruses that belong to the Astroviridae family. While classical human astroviruses (HAstV) are a well-recognized cause of acute non-bacterial diarrhea among young children worldwide, novel astroviruses, named HAstV-MLB and HAstV-VA/HMO, have been identified recently in humans by molecular assays. They are phylogenetically more related to animal astroviruses than to classical human astroviruses, thus suggesting cross-species transmission. Serological studies demonstrated a surprisingly high seroprevalence in certain populations and highlighted a high infection rate in the early years of life. Although their pathogenic role has not yet been clearly determined, novel astrovirus RNA sequences have been identified in different biological specimens of symptomatic patients, including the feces, plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, and brain biopsies. Thus, there is evidence that they could contribute not only to digestive tract infection, but also to unexpected clinical syndromes, notably encephalitis and meningitis. Severe infections affect mainly immunocompromised patients. These findings indicate that novel astroviruses should be considered in the differential diagnosis of immunocompromised patients with meningitis or encephalitis of unknown origin.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Division of Laboratory Medicine and Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Geneva Hospitals, 4 Rue Gabrielle Perret-Gentil, 1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland; University of Geneva Medical School, 1 Rue Michel-Servet, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. Electronic address: diem-lan.vu@hcuge.ch.
authors.forename: Diem-Lan
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Vu
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Division of Laboratory Medicine and Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Geneva Hospitals, 4 Rue Gabrielle Perret-Gentil, 1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland; University of Geneva Medical School, 1 Rue Michel-Servet, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. Electronic address: samuel.cordey@hcuge.ch.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cordey
authors.affiliation: Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Geneva Medical School, 1 Rue Michel-Servet, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. Electronic address: Francisco.Brito@isb-sib.ch.
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brito
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Virology, Division of Laboratory Medicine and Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Geneva Hospitals, 4 Rue Gabrielle Perret-Gentil, 1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland; University of Geneva Medical School, 1 Rue Michel-Servet, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland. Electronic address: laurent.kaiser@hcuge.ch.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kaiser
mesh_terms: D019350:Astroviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D001257:Mamastrovirus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D010802:Phylogeny; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
keywords: Astrovirus; Cross-species transmission; Encephalitis; Gastrointestinal infection; Meningitis