Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010;2(3):117-126.
doi: 10.1007/s12560-010-9038-1.

Noroviruses - State of the Art

Robert L Atmar  1
Affiliations

Noroviruses - State of the Art

Robert L Atmar. Food Environ Virol. 2010.

Abstract

Noroviruses are a common cause of both endemic and epidemic gastroenteritis. These highly infectious viruses usually cause self-limited disease, but chronic infections occur in highly immunocompromised patients and unusual manifestations are also being described in some populations. Histoblood-group antigen expression is now recognized as an important susceptibility factor for many norovirus strains, but a correlate of acquired immunity to infection or illness has not yet been identified. Currently, treatment and prevention strategies rely on non-specific measures. However, virus-like particles containing capsid antigens are undergoing evaluation as a vaccine candidate for illness prevention. This article reviews the biologic properties, epidemiology, clinical features, host susceptibility, diagnosis, and treatment and prevention of norovirus infection.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Norovirus genomic organization and replication strategy. Norovirus is a positive strand RNA virus with three open reading frames (ORFs) encoding a large polyprotein from which non-structural proteins are produced by proteolytic cleavage and two structural proteins, VP1 and VP2. Replication takes place through a negative sense intermediate, from which the genomic RNA and a subgenomic RNA encoding the structural proteins are produced.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Classification of noroviruses into genogroups and genotypes. The Norovirus genus is divided into 5 genogroups (GI-GV). Each genogroup has from 1 to 19 different genotypes. GI.9 is a newly designated genotype, and its prototype strain is NoV/IF2036/2003/Iraq (AY675555).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Histoblood group synthetic pathway for blood group ABH and Lewis antigens. A type 1 precursor glycan is modified by fucosyltransferase-2 (FUT2) to produce the H type 1 glycan, which can be further modified by FUT3 (to produce Lewis-b [Leb]) and by A and B enzymes (enz) to produce the A and B histoblood group antigens (HBGAs). If FUT2 is non-functional, a person is a non-secretor, although the H type 1 precursor can still be modified to produce Lea in the presence of a functional FUT3. Persons with a functional FUT2 enzyme are called secretor positive because the ABH HBGAs are found in secretions and on mucosal surfaces.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Atmar RL, Estes MK. Diagnosis of noncultivatable gastroenteritis viruses, the human caliciviruses. Clinical Microbiology Reviews. 2001;14(1):15–37. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Atmar RL, Estes MK. The epidemiologic and clinical importance of norovirus infection. Gastroenterology Clinics of North America. 2006;35(2):275–290. - PubMed
    1. Atmar RL, Opekun AR, Gilger MA, Estes MK, Crawford SE, Neill FH, et al. Norwalk virus shedding after experimental human infection. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2008;14(10):1553–1557. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ball JM, Graham DY, Opekun AR, Gilger MA, Guerrero RA, Estes MK. Recombinant Norwalk virus-like particles given orally to volunteers: Phase I study. Gastroenterology. 1999;117(1):40–48. - PubMed
    1. Bull RA, Tanaka MD, White PA. Norovirus recombination. Journal of General Virology. 2007;88:3347–3359. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources