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
. 2022 Mar;69(2):864-869.
doi: 10.1111/tbed.13979. Epub 2021 Jan 17.

Astrovirus VA1 in patients with acute gastroenteritis

Gianvito Lanave  1 , Daniela Loconsole  2 , Francesca Centrone  2 , Cristiana Catella  1 , Paolo Capozza  1 , Georgia Diakoudi  1 , Antonio Parisi  3 , Elisabetta Suffredini  4 , Alessio Buonavoglia  5 , Michele Camero  1 , Maria Chironna  2 , Vito Martella  1
Affiliations

Astrovirus VA1 in patients with acute gastroenteritis

Gianvito Lanave et al. Transbound Emerg Dis. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Human astroviruses (AstVs) are usually associated with acute gastroenteritis. In recent years, atypical animal-like AstVs have been identified, but their pathogenic role in humans has not been determined. Starting from 2010, there has been a growing evidence that AstVs may also be associated with encephalitis in human and animal hosts. Some human atypical AstV strains (VA1, MLB1/MLB2) display neurotropic potential, as they have been repeatedly identified in patients with AstV-related encephalitis, chiefly in immunosuppressed individuals. In this study, a VA1-like AstV was identified from a single stool sample from an outbreak of foodborne acute gastroenteritis occurred in Italy in 2018. On genome sequencing, the virus was related to the VA1-like strain UK1 (99.3% at the nucleotide level). Similar viruses were also found to circulate in paediatric patients hospitalized with AGE in the same time span, 2018, but at low prevalence (0.75%, 3/401). Gathering epidemiological data on atypical AstVs will be useful to assess the risks posed by atypical AstV infections, chiefly in medically fragile patients.

Keywords: VA1; astrovirus; foodborne; gastroenteritis; human; neurotropism.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Arruda, B., Arruda, P., Hensch, M., Chen, Q., Zheng, Y., Yang, C., Gatto, I. R. H., Ferreyra, F. M., Gauger, P., Schwartz, K., Bradner, L., Harmon, K., Hause, B., & Li, G. (2017). Porcine astrovirus type 3 in central nervous system of swine with polioencephalomyelitis. Emerging Infectious Disease, 23(12), 2097-2100. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2312.170703
    1. Brown, J. R., Morfopoulou, S., Hubb, J., Emmett, W. A., Ip, W., Shah, D., Brooks, T., Paine, S. M., Anderson, G., Virasami, A., Tong, C. Y., Clark, D. A., Plagnol, V., Jacques, T. S., Qasim, W., Hubank, M., & Breuer, J. (2015). Astrovirus VA1/HMO-C: an increasingly recognized neurotropic pathogen in immunocompromised patients. Clinical Infectious Disease, 60(6), 881-888. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciu940
    1. Burbelo, P. D., Ching, K. H., Esper, F., Iadarola, M. J., Delwart, E., Lipkin, W. I., & Kapoor, A. (2011). Serological studies confirm the novel astrovirus HMOAstV-C as a highly prevalent human infectious agent. PLoS One, 6(8), e22576. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022576
    1. Chu, D. K., Poon, L. L., Guan, Y., & Peiris, J. S. (2008). Novel astroviruses in insectivorous bats. Journal of Virology, 82, 9107-9114. https://do.org/10.1128/JVI.00857-08
    1. Cordey, S., Brito, F., Vu, D. L., Turin, L., Kilowoko, M., Kyungu, E., Genton, B., Zdobnov, E. M., D'Acremont, V., & Kaiser, L. (2016). Astrovirus VA1 identified by next-generation sequencing in a nasopharyngeal specimen of a febrile Tanzanian child with acute respiratory disease of unknown etiology. Emerging Microbes Infection, 5(9), e99. https://doi.org/10.1038/emi.2016.98 Erratum for: Emerging Microbes Infection. 2016 Jul 06; 5: e67.

Associated data

LinkOut - more resources