Recent progress in molecular biology of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a severe hemorrhagic fever in humans with a case fatality rate of up to 50%. A causative agent of CCHF is CCHF virus, which is a tick-borne virus in the family Bunyaviridae, genus Nairovirus. The virus is transmitted to humans through infected tick bites, squashed ticks or from direct contact with viremic animals or humans. Outbreaks of CCHF have been documented in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Western Asia where the vector and/or reservoir ticks of Hyalomma spp. are distributed. Recent advances in molecular and biochemical analyses of CCHF virus revealed that the virus encodes larger proteins compared to other genus of Bunyavirus and the processing of viral proteins are complicated. Recent studies also showed that the CCHF viruses are relatively divergent in its genome sequence and the viruses are grouped in seven different clades. In general, these phylogenetic analyses based on sequences of S-RNA and L-RNA segment of CCHF viruses indicate that the seven clades correlate with their geographical location. The phylogenetic topology based on M-RNA segment sequences of CCHF viruses is different from those based on S-RNA and L-RNA segments. These analyses indicate that M-RNA segment reassortment events occur more frequently than those in S- and L-RNA segments.