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Comment
. 2022 Sep 16;7(1):323.
doi: 10.1038/s41392-022-01181-x.

The monkeypox outbreak in 2022: adaptive evolution associated with APOBEC3 may account for

Yangzhen Chen #  1 , Maochen Li #  1 , Huahao Fan  2
Affiliations
Comment

The monkeypox outbreak in 2022: adaptive evolution associated with APOBEC3 may account for

Yangzhen Chen et al. Signal Transduct Target Ther. .
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
APOBEC3-associated virus adaptive evolution may account for the monkeypox outbreak in 2022. The historical epidemiology and the genetic linkages suggested that the global monkeypox outbreak in 2022 might originate from epidemic regions (Africa). Sequencing analysis identified nearly 50 biased mutations (from GA to AA or TC to TT) in the genomes of recent monkeypox epidemics, indicating an accelerated evolution driven by APOBEC3. Coincidently, 218 (41%) of 528 monkeypox cases in the study of J.P. Thornhill et al. are also HIV patients with a high level of APOBEC3 expressions, which is beneficial for MPXV-biased mutations. The APOBEC3-derived mutations may further reduce the pathogenicity and symptoms caused by MPXV infection, leading to the cryptic transmission of monkeypox in populations and the global monkeypox outbreak, exhibiting the adaptive evolution of MPXV
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References

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