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Molecular Epidemiology Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Strains Circulating in Romania during the First Months of the Pandemic

BACKGROUND: The spread of SARS-CoV-2 generated an unprecedented global public health crisis. Soon after Asia, Europe was seriously affected. Many countries, including Romania, adopted lockdown measures to limit the outbreak. AIM: We performed a molecular epidemiology analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral str...

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Autores principales: Surleac, Marius, Banica, Leontina, Casangiu, Corina, Cotic, Marius, Florea, Dragos, Sandulescu, Oana, Milu, Petre, Streinu-Cercel, Anca, Vlaicu, Ovidiu, Paraskevis, Dimitrios, Paraschiv, Simona, Otelea, Dan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7460100/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32823907
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10080152
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author Surleac, Marius
Banica, Leontina
Casangiu, Corina
Cotic, Marius
Florea, Dragos
Sandulescu, Oana
Milu, Petre
Streinu-Cercel, Anca
Vlaicu, Ovidiu
Paraskevis, Dimitrios
Paraschiv, Simona
Otelea, Dan
author_facet Surleac, Marius
Banica, Leontina
Casangiu, Corina
Cotic, Marius
Florea, Dragos
Sandulescu, Oana
Milu, Petre
Streinu-Cercel, Anca
Vlaicu, Ovidiu
Paraskevis, Dimitrios
Paraschiv, Simona
Otelea, Dan
author_sort Surleac, Marius
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The spread of SARS-CoV-2 generated an unprecedented global public health crisis. Soon after Asia, Europe was seriously affected. Many countries, including Romania, adopted lockdown measures to limit the outbreak. AIM: We performed a molecular epidemiology analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral strains circulating in Romania during the first two months of the epidemic in order to detect mutation profiles and phylogenetic relatedness. METHODS: Respiratory samples were directly used for shotgun sequencing. RESULTS: All Romanian sequences belonged to lineage B, with a different subtype distribution between northern and southern regions (subtype B.1.5 and B.1.1). Phylogenetic analysis suggested that the Romanian epidemic started with multiple introduction events from other European countries followed by local transmission. Phylogenetic links between northern Romania and Spain, Austria, Scotland and Russia were observed, as well as between southern Romania and Switzerland, Italy, France and Turkey. One viral strain presented a previously unreported mutation in the Nsp2 gene, namely K489E. Epidemiologically-defined clusters displayed specific mutations, suggesting molecular signatures for strains coming from areas that were isolated during the lockdown. CONCLUSIONS: Romanian epidemic was initiated by multiple introductions from European countries followed by local transmissions. Different subtype distribution between northern and southern Romania was observed after two months of the pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-74601002020-09-02 Molecular Epidemiology Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Strains Circulating in Romania during the First Months of the Pandemic Surleac, Marius Banica, Leontina Casangiu, Corina Cotic, Marius Florea, Dragos Sandulescu, Oana Milu, Petre Streinu-Cercel, Anca Vlaicu, Ovidiu Paraskevis, Dimitrios Paraschiv, Simona Otelea, Dan Life (Basel) Article BACKGROUND: The spread of SARS-CoV-2 generated an unprecedented global public health crisis. Soon after Asia, Europe was seriously affected. Many countries, including Romania, adopted lockdown measures to limit the outbreak. AIM: We performed a molecular epidemiology analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral strains circulating in Romania during the first two months of the epidemic in order to detect mutation profiles and phylogenetic relatedness. METHODS: Respiratory samples were directly used for shotgun sequencing. RESULTS: All Romanian sequences belonged to lineage B, with a different subtype distribution between northern and southern regions (subtype B.1.5 and B.1.1). Phylogenetic analysis suggested that the Romanian epidemic started with multiple introduction events from other European countries followed by local transmission. Phylogenetic links between northern Romania and Spain, Austria, Scotland and Russia were observed, as well as between southern Romania and Switzerland, Italy, France and Turkey. One viral strain presented a previously unreported mutation in the Nsp2 gene, namely K489E. Epidemiologically-defined clusters displayed specific mutations, suggesting molecular signatures for strains coming from areas that were isolated during the lockdown. CONCLUSIONS: Romanian epidemic was initiated by multiple introductions from European countries followed by local transmissions. Different subtype distribution between northern and southern Romania was observed after two months of the pandemic. MDPI 2020-08-14 /pmc/articles/PMC7460100/ /pubmed/32823907 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10080152 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Surleac, Marius
Banica, Leontina
Casangiu, Corina
Cotic, Marius
Florea, Dragos
Sandulescu, Oana
Milu, Petre
Streinu-Cercel, Anca
Vlaicu, Ovidiu
Paraskevis, Dimitrios
Paraschiv, Simona
Otelea, Dan
Molecular Epidemiology Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Strains Circulating in Romania during the First Months of the Pandemic
title Molecular Epidemiology Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Strains Circulating in Romania during the First Months of the Pandemic
title_full Molecular Epidemiology Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Strains Circulating in Romania during the First Months of the Pandemic
title_fullStr Molecular Epidemiology Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Strains Circulating in Romania during the First Months of the Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Molecular Epidemiology Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Strains Circulating in Romania during the First Months of the Pandemic
title_short Molecular Epidemiology Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Strains Circulating in Romania during the First Months of the Pandemic
title_sort molecular epidemiology analysis of sars-cov-2 strains circulating in romania during the first months of the pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7460100/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32823907
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/life10080152
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