The discovery of two new viruses closely related to rubella suggests that this one could be of animal origin and that other viruses of this family could also cross the species barrier.
- American-German scientists claim to have identified two viruses, hitherto unknown, and close to that of rubella.
- Rubella was until then the only virus of its kind. The discovery of two cousins, on mammals and marsupials, suggests that this virus would be of animal origin.
Rubella is no longer an orphan virus. On October 7, German and American researchers revealed in Nature magazine that they had found two other viruses related to this one. Thus the family of viruses Matonaviridea is getting bigger. “Since 1814, when rubella was first described, the origins of the disease and its causative agent, the rubella virus (Matonaviridae: Rubivirus), have remained unclear.”, write the authors of the study. The researchers claim to have observed these two “new” viruses on animals in Africa and Europe very close to us. Information that raises their concerns about seeing – again – these viruses cross species barriers such as SARS-CoV-2 responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic in particular.
Rubella was formally identified in 1962 and has since been contained through vaccination. “Rubella is an acute contagious viral infection, reminds the World Health Organization. While rubella virus infection usually causes mild fever, rash in children, and flu-like symptoms in adults, infection during pregnancy, especially during the first trimester, can cause miscarriage delivery, fetal death, stillbirth or birth defects, called congenital rubella syndrome (CRS). The rubella virus is transmitted by nasal droplets expelled by infected people when they sneeze or cough. He was almost eradicated thanks to the vaccine“.
Rubella, a virus probably of zoonotic origin
Yet these parent viruses”ruhugu virus” and “rustrela virus” could change our view of rubella. “Ruhugu virus, which is the closest relative of rubella virus, was found in apparently healthy cyclops leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideros cyclops) in Ugandareport the scientists. The Rustrela virus, which is a subgroup of the clade [groupe d’organisme, NDLR] which includes rubella and ruhugu viruses, was found in placental and marsupial animals with acute encephalitis at a zoo in Germany and in wild yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) at and near the zooTo identify this cousinship, the researchers noticed that these two viruses share genomic architecture with rubella virus as well as coding similarities.”Modeling homotrimers [un type de protéine, NDLR] E1 in the post-fusion state predicts that ruhugu and rubella viruses have a similar ability to fuse with the host cell membranedetail the researchers. Together, these results show that some members of the family Matonaviridae can cross significant barriers between host species and that rubella virus likely has a zoonotic origin.”
The ruhugu virus was discovered by chance while scientists were looking for traces of Covid-19 in bats in Uganda. The rustrela was identified as researchers questioned the deaths of a donkey, a Bennett’s tree-kangaroo and a capybara at a German zoo.
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