Prevalence and genetic diversity of Parechovirus

Human parechovirus (HPeV) is a common virus that can cause severe infections in newborns. Due to the limited knowledge of the prevalence of HPeV in different cities in China and the unknown association between HPeV infection and clinical characteristics of newborns, this research investigated the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of HPeV infection in hospitalized neonates in Changsha. From August to October 2023, 145 anal swab samples from 96 newborns and 38 pharyngeal swab samples from 33 newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) were collected. The prevalence of HPeV was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The genomes of HPeV were sequenced and the viral protein 1 (VP1) region was used for genotyping. Phylogenetic analysis and recombination analysis of HPeV genome were performed. Finally, HPeV was detected in 10 out of 44 patients in October, all of them were HPeV-1. The sequenced 4 genomes of HPeV showed high genetic diversity with known strains. Additionally, a HPeV-1 recombinant strain was detected. Compared with HPeV negative patients, HPeV patients had higher prevalence of abdominal pain and diarrhea, intracranial hemorrhage, and purulent meningitis. Compared with HPeV negative patients, HPeV patients had higher peripheral blood lymphocytes, albumin, globulin, pH and lower peripheral blood neutrophils and hemoglobin. HPeV is an important viral cause of newborn infections and appears to be increasing in prevalence in recent years. Characteristic clinical pictures exist in HPeV infections, and further research is needed to accumulate more cases to obtain a comprehensive understanding of HPeV infections.