2024-08-26 03:30:09
In the summer of 1958, an outbreak of smallpox-like skin infections occurred among macaque monkeys at the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen used for polio research and vaccine production. The analysis revealed the presence of a new virus of the orthopox genus of the poxvirus family, related to that of smallpox. Then it was called “monkey pox virus”. In these years, it caused other epidemics among the undergraduates in different research centers in France, the United States and the Netherlands, without its origin being able to be traced.
His silly name reveals one of his characteristics. It is a zoonotic virus capable of infecting many animal species, including the Gambian rat, the striped funiscidus and the red-footed helioscidus, a species of African arboreal rodents which can be reservoirs. The attack of the monkey will be only occasional.
The monkeypox virus, renamed mpox in 2022, is a DNA virus, which immediately differentiates itself from RNA viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 (responsible for Covid-19), influenza virus or HIV by the reduction of its evolution, with a change change of the order of a thousand times lower. There are two branches, or clades 1 and 2, located respectively in Central Africa and West Africa, the basis of which varies from 4% to 5%. They are believed to have split 560 years ago, a time of climate change that could have affected the world’s tropical forests.
The circulation sometimes
The monkeypox virus is also distinguished by its size. Its genome contains around 200,000 base pairs of genes for about twice as many viruses, compared to only ten for HIV. Some are known thanks to the researches carried out on the vaccine virus, used until 1980 in the small vaccine. They are used for the multiplication of the viral genome in infected cells and for the construction of viral particles. Others are accessories and are present in variable numbers (67 in monkeypox virus versus 53 to 55 in smallpox virus). Their function is not understood, but they seem to be important for the interaction between the virus and its hosts.
“When the virus adapted to humans from its animal source, it lost many other genes. It is a complex process and poorly understood and questions remain open about their role in modulating the immune response and in the form of species that viruses can infect, warns Alex Sigal, of the South African Health Research Institute, based in Durban. But they appear to be important for compatibility for a given host. Unlike with SARS-Cov-2, where this approach depends a lot on the recipient. These viruses are more complex. »
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