Browsing by Author "Yang, Xing-Lou"

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    Chirohepevirus from Bats: Insights into Hepatitis E Virus Diversity and Evolution
    Wang, Bo; Yang, Xing-Lou (MDPI, 2022-04-27)
    Homologs of the human hepatitis E virus (HEV) have been identified in more than a dozen animal species. Some of them have been evidenced to cross species barriers and infect humans. Zoonotic HEV infections cause chronic liver diseases as well as a broad range of extrahepatic manifestations, which increasingly become significant clinical problems. Bats comprise approximately one-fifth of all named mammal species and are unique in their distinct immune response to viral infection. Most importantly, they are natural reservoirs of several highly pathogenic viruses, which have induced severe human diseases. Since the first discovery of HEV-related viruses in bats in 2012, multiple genetically divergent HEV variants have been reported in a total of 12 bat species over the last decade, which markedly expanded the host range of the HEV family and shed light on the evolutionary origin of human HEV. Meanwhile, bat-borne HEV also raised critical public health concerns about its zoonotic potential. Bat HEV strains resemble genomic features but exhibit considerable heterogeneity. Due to the close evolutionary relationships, bat HEV altogether has been recently assigned to an independent genus, Chirohepevirus. This review focuses on the current state of bat HEV and provides novel insights into HEV genetic diversity and molecular evolution.
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    Identification and Genomic Characterization of Two Novel Hepatoviruses in Shrews from Yunnan Province, China
    Tang, Yi; Zhao, Kai; Yin, Hong-Min; Yang, Li-Ping; Wu, Yue-Chun; Li, Feng-Yi; Yang, Ze; Lu, Hui-Xuan; Wang, Bo; Yang, Yin; Zhang, Yun-Zhi; Yang, Xing-Lou (MDPI, 2024-06-17)
    Hepatitis A virus (HAV), a member of the genus Hepatovirus (Picornaviridae HepV), remains a significant viral pathogen, frequently causing enterically transmitted hepatitis worldwide. In this study, we conducted an epidemiological survey of HepVs carried by small terrestrial mammals in the wild in Yunnan Province, China. Utilizing HepV-specific broad-spectrum RT-PCR, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and QNome nanopore sequencing (QNS) techniques, we identified and characterized two novel HepVs provisionally named EpMa-HAV and EpLe-HAV, discovered in the long-tailed mountain shrew (Episoriculus macrurus) and long-tailed brown-toothed shrew (Episoriculus leucops), respectively. Our sequence and phylogenetic analyses of EpMa-HAV and EpLe-HAV indicated that they belong to the species Hepatovirus I (HepV-I) clade II, also known as the Chinese shrew HepV clade. Notably, the codon usage bias pattern of novel shrew HepVs is consistent with that of previously identified Chinese shrew HepV. Furthermore, our structural analysis demonstrated that shrew HepVs differ from other mammalian HepVs in RNA secondary structure and exhibit variances in key protein sites. Overall, the discovery of two novel HepVs in shrews expands the host range of HepV and underscores the existence of genetically diverse animal homologs of human HAV within the genus HepV.
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    Orthohepevirus C: An Expanding Species of Emerging Hepatitis E Virus Variants
    Wang, Bo; Harms, Dominik; Yang, Xing-Lou; Bock, C.-Thomas (MDPI, 2020-02-25)
    Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an emerging zoonotic pathogen that has received an increasing amount of attention from virologists, clinicians, veterinarians, and epidemiologists over the past decade. The host range and animal reservoirs of HEV are rapidly expanding and a plethora of emerging HEV variants have been recently identified, some of which have the potential for interspecies infection. In this review, the detection of genetically diverse HEV variants, classified into and presumably associated with the species Orthohepevirus C, currently comprising HEV genotypes C1 and C2, by either serological or molecular approach is summarized. The distribution, genomic variability, and evolution of Orthohepevirus C are analyzed. Moreover, the potential risk of cross-species infection and zoonotic transmission of Orthohepevirus C are discussed.