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A Murine Model of Dengue Virus-induced Acute Viral Encephalitis-like Disease
Published on: April 28, 2019
A Variegated Squirrel Bornavirus Associated with Fatal Human Encephalitis
Bernd Hoffmann1, Dennis Tappe, Dirk Höper
1From the Institute of Diagnostic Virology (B.H., D.H., M.J., B.A., M.B.), Department of Experimental Animal Facilities and Biorisk Management (J.P.T.), and Institute of Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases (R.G.U.), Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Arbovirus and Hemorrhagic Fever Reference and Research, Hamburg (D.T., D.C., J.S.-C.), German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Hamburg-Lübeck-Borstel (D.T., D.C., J.S.-C.), Institute of Veterinary Pathology, Justus-Liebig-University Gießen, Gießen (C.H.), Department of Neurology, Bergmannstrost Hospital (A.B., O.N.), and Department of Neurology, University Hospital Halle (Saale) (T.M.), Halle (Saale), Institute of Neuropathology, Otto-von-Guericke Universität, Magdeburg (C.M.), State Institute for Consumer Protection of Saxony-Anhalt, Department of Veterinary Medicine, Stendal (E.v.d.G.), and Special Service for Veterinarian Affairs and Consumer Protection, Salzlandkreis, Bernburg (Saale) (C.L.) - all in Germany.
Abstract:
Between 2011 and 2013, three breeders of variegated squirrels (Sciurus variegatoides) had encephalitis with similar clinical signs and died 2 to 4 months after onset of the clinical symptoms. With the use of a metagenomic approach that incorporated next-generation sequencing and real-time reverse-transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), the presence of a previously unknown bornavirus was detected in a contact squirrel and in brain samples from the three patients. Phylogenetic analyses showed that this virus, tentatively named variegated squirrel 1 bornavirus (VSBV-1), forms a lineage separate from that of the known bornavirus species. (Funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture [Germany] and others.).
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