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Pandemic potential of poxviruses: From an ancient killer causing smallpox to the surge of monkeypox

Smallpox caused by the variola virus (VARV) was one of the greatest infectious killers of mankind. Historical records trace back smallpox for at least a millennium while phylogenetic analysis dated the ancestor of VARV circulating in the 20th century into the 19th century. The discrepancy was solved...

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Autor principal: Brüssow, Harald
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10443337/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37335284
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.14294
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author Brüssow, Harald
author_facet Brüssow, Harald
author_sort Brüssow, Harald
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description Smallpox caused by the variola virus (VARV) was one of the greatest infectious killers of mankind. Historical records trace back smallpox for at least a millennium while phylogenetic analysis dated the ancestor of VARV circulating in the 20th century into the 19th century. The discrepancy was solved by the detection of distinct VARV sequences first in 17th‐century mummies and then in human skeletons dated to the 7th century. The historical records noted marked variability in VARV virulence which scientists tentatively associated with gene losses occurring when broad‐host poxviruses narrow their host range to a single host. VARV split from camel and gerbil poxviruses and had no animal reservoir, a prerequisite for its eradication led by WHO. The search for residual pockets of VARV led to the discovery of the monkeypox virus (MPXV); followed by the detection of endemic smallpox‐like monkeypox (mpox) disease in Africa. Mpox is caused by less virulent clade 2 MPXV in West Africa and more virulent clade 1 MPXV in Central Africa. Exported clade 2 mpox cases associated with the pet animal trade were observed in 2003 in the USA. In 2022 a world‐wide mpox epidemic infecting more than 80,000 people was noted, peaking in August 2022 although waning rapidly. The cases displayed particular epidemiological characteristics affecting nearly exclusively young men having sex with men (MSM). In contrast, mpox in Africa mostly affects children by non‐sexual transmission routes possibly from uncharacterized animal reservoirs. While African children show a classical smallpox picture, MSM mpox cases show few mostly anogenital lesions, low‐hospitalization rates and 140 fatal cases worldwide. MPXV strains from North America and Europe are closely related, derived from clade 2 African MPXV. Distinct transmission mechanisms are more likely causes for the epidemiological and clinical differences between endemic African cases and the 2022 epidemic cases than viral traits.
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spelling pubmed-104433372023-08-23 Pandemic potential of poxviruses: From an ancient killer causing smallpox to the surge of monkeypox Brüssow, Harald Microb Biotechnol Lilliput Smallpox caused by the variola virus (VARV) was one of the greatest infectious killers of mankind. Historical records trace back smallpox for at least a millennium while phylogenetic analysis dated the ancestor of VARV circulating in the 20th century into the 19th century. The discrepancy was solved by the detection of distinct VARV sequences first in 17th‐century mummies and then in human skeletons dated to the 7th century. The historical records noted marked variability in VARV virulence which scientists tentatively associated with gene losses occurring when broad‐host poxviruses narrow their host range to a single host. VARV split from camel and gerbil poxviruses and had no animal reservoir, a prerequisite for its eradication led by WHO. The search for residual pockets of VARV led to the discovery of the monkeypox virus (MPXV); followed by the detection of endemic smallpox‐like monkeypox (mpox) disease in Africa. Mpox is caused by less virulent clade 2 MPXV in West Africa and more virulent clade 1 MPXV in Central Africa. Exported clade 2 mpox cases associated with the pet animal trade were observed in 2003 in the USA. In 2022 a world‐wide mpox epidemic infecting more than 80,000 people was noted, peaking in August 2022 although waning rapidly. The cases displayed particular epidemiological characteristics affecting nearly exclusively young men having sex with men (MSM). In contrast, mpox in Africa mostly affects children by non‐sexual transmission routes possibly from uncharacterized animal reservoirs. While African children show a classical smallpox picture, MSM mpox cases show few mostly anogenital lesions, low‐hospitalization rates and 140 fatal cases worldwide. MPXV strains from North America and Europe are closely related, derived from clade 2 African MPXV. Distinct transmission mechanisms are more likely causes for the epidemiological and clinical differences between endemic African cases and the 2022 epidemic cases than viral traits. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023-06-19 /pmc/articles/PMC10443337/ /pubmed/37335284 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.14294 Text en © 2023 The Author. Microbial Biotechnology published by Applied Microbiology International and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle Lilliput
Brüssow, Harald
Pandemic potential of poxviruses: From an ancient killer causing smallpox to the surge of monkeypox
title Pandemic potential of poxviruses: From an ancient killer causing smallpox to the surge of monkeypox
title_full Pandemic potential of poxviruses: From an ancient killer causing smallpox to the surge of monkeypox
title_fullStr Pandemic potential of poxviruses: From an ancient killer causing smallpox to the surge of monkeypox
title_full_unstemmed Pandemic potential of poxviruses: From an ancient killer causing smallpox to the surge of monkeypox
title_short Pandemic potential of poxviruses: From an ancient killer causing smallpox to the surge of monkeypox
title_sort pandemic potential of poxviruses: from an ancient killer causing smallpox to the surge of monkeypox
topic Lilliput
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10443337/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37335284
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1751-7915.14294
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