Key result
The neurovirulence of Enterovirus A71 fluctuates depending on the phylogenetic clade, with clades C4-III and C4-V causing significantly higher mortality in transgenic mice than B5 clades.
Why the study?
It remained an unanswered question why outbreaks of hand, foot, and mouth disease with many severe enterovirus A71 cases sometimes occur.
The virulence of EV-A71 fluctuates depending on the phylogenetic clade formed during specific epidemic years and regions, which may explain the occurrence of outbreaks with severe neurological cases.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Animal data link EV-A71 clade to virulence; leaves open whether clade monitoring predicts severe human outbreaks.
Outbreaks of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) with severe enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) cases have occurred repeatedly, mainly in Asia. In severe cases, central nervous system complications can lead to death, making it an infectious disease of importance to public health. An unanswered question about this disease is why outbreaks of HFMD with many severe cases sometimes occur. Here, we collected EV-A71 strains that were prevalent in Japan and Vietnam over the past 20 years and evaluated their virulence in a mouse model of EV-A71 infection. This method clearly revealed that viruses belonging to different clades have different virulence, indicating that the method is powerful to assess the potential risks of the circulating viruses. The results also suggested that factors in the virus genome cause an outbreak with many severe cases and that further studies facilitate the prediction of large epidemics of EV-A71 in the future.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Kobayashi et al. (2021) studied Enterovirus A71 infection (n=59). Enterovirus A71 phylogenetic clades vs. Different clades was evaluated on Mortality rate in hSCARB2-tg mice (p=<0.05). The neurovirulence of Enterovirus A71 fluctuates depending on the phylogenetic clade, with clades C4-III and C4-V causing significantly higher mortality in transgenic mice than B5 clades.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: