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From orphan virus to pathogen: the path to the clinical lab
1Blood Systems Research Institute, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Current Opinion in Virology
|October 18, 2011
Summary
Identifying pathogenic orphan viruses requires careful study design. Disease association studies and antibody detection methods face challenges due to viral diversity and sample limitations.
Area of Science:
- Virology
- Genomics
- Infectious Diseases
Background:
- Viral metagenomics has discovered many new viral genomes from human and animal samples.
- Determining the pathogenicity of these novel viruses is a significant challenge in public health.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review metagenomics tools and strategies for identifying pathogenic orphan viruses.
- To discuss the complexities and limitations in disease association studies for novel viruses.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing metagenomics tools and strategies.
- Analysis of disease association study designs, including epidemiological matching.
- Evaluation of antibody detection methods (neutralizing and binding assays).
Main Results:
- Disease association studies require closely matched case and control groups, which are often unavailable.
- Antibody detection methods face hurdles such as virus amplification and antigen synthesis.
- Viral genetic diversity, co-infections, and chronic shedding complicate pathogenicity assessments.
Conclusions:
- Limited availability of matched samples across diverse demographics hinders pathogenicity estimation.
- Current deep sequencing technologies have practical limitations for routine viral diagnostics.
- Further development of standardized methods is crucial for characterizing novel viral pathogens.
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