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Pathogenesis of Lassa Fever

Lassa virus, an Old World arenavirus (family Arenaviridae), is the etiological agent of Lassa fever, a severe human disease that is reported in more than 100,000 patients annually in the endemic regions of West Africa with mortality rates for hospitalized patients varying between 5-10%. Currently, t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Yun, Nadezhda E., Walker, David H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3497040/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23202452
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v4102031
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author Yun, Nadezhda E.
Walker, David H.
author_facet Yun, Nadezhda E.
Walker, David H.
author_sort Yun, Nadezhda E.
collection PubMed
description Lassa virus, an Old World arenavirus (family Arenaviridae), is the etiological agent of Lassa fever, a severe human disease that is reported in more than 100,000 patients annually in the endemic regions of West Africa with mortality rates for hospitalized patients varying between 5-10%. Currently, there are no approved vaccines against Lassa fever for use in humans. Here, we review the published literature on the life cycle of Lassa virus with the specific focus put on Lassa fever pathogenesis in humans and relevant animal models. Advancing knowledge significantly improves our understanding of Lassa virus biology, as well as of the mechanisms that allow the virus to evade the host’s immune system. However, further investigations are required in order to design improved diagnostic tools, an effective vaccine, and therapeutic agents.
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spelling pubmed-34970402012-11-29 Pathogenesis of Lassa Fever Yun, Nadezhda E. Walker, David H. Viruses Review Lassa virus, an Old World arenavirus (family Arenaviridae), is the etiological agent of Lassa fever, a severe human disease that is reported in more than 100,000 patients annually in the endemic regions of West Africa with mortality rates for hospitalized patients varying between 5-10%. Currently, there are no approved vaccines against Lassa fever for use in humans. Here, we review the published literature on the life cycle of Lassa virus with the specific focus put on Lassa fever pathogenesis in humans and relevant animal models. Advancing knowledge significantly improves our understanding of Lassa virus biology, as well as of the mechanisms that allow the virus to evade the host’s immune system. However, further investigations are required in order to design improved diagnostic tools, an effective vaccine, and therapeutic agents. MDPI 2012-10-09 /pmc/articles/PMC3497040/ /pubmed/23202452 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v4102031 Text en © 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Yun, Nadezhda E.
Walker, David H.
Pathogenesis of Lassa Fever
title Pathogenesis of Lassa Fever
title_full Pathogenesis of Lassa Fever
title_fullStr Pathogenesis of Lassa Fever
title_full_unstemmed Pathogenesis of Lassa Fever
title_short Pathogenesis of Lassa Fever
title_sort pathogenesis of lassa fever
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3497040/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23202452
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v4102031
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