Halpin K, Young P L, Field H E, Mackenzie J S
Department of Primary Industries, Animal Research Institute, 665 Fairfield Road, Yeerongpilly, Queensland 4105, Australia2.
Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia1.
J Gen Virol. 2000 Aug;81(Pt 8):1927-1932. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-81-8-1927.
Since it was first described in Australia in 1994, Hendra virus (HeV) has caused two outbreaks of fatal disease in horses and humans, and an isolated fatal horse case. Our preliminary studies revealed a high prevalence of neutralizing antibodies to HeV in bats of the genus PTEROPUS:, but it was unclear whether this was due to infection with HeV or a related virus. We developed the hypothesis that HeV excretion from bats might be related to the birthing process and we targeted the reproductive tract for virus isolation. Three virus isolates were obtained from the uterine fluid and a pool of foetal lung and liver from one grey-headed flying-fox (Pteropus poliocephalus), and from the foetal lung of one black flying-fox (P. alecto). Antigenically, these isolates appeared to be closely related to HeV, returning positive results on immunofluorescent antibody staining and constant-serum varying-virus neutralization tests. Using an HeV-specific oligonucleotide primer pair, genomic sequences of the isolates were amplified. Sequencing of 200 nucleotides in the matrix gene identified that these three isolates were identical to HeV. Isolations were confirmed after RNA extracted from original material was positive for HeV RNA when screened on an HeV Taqman assay. The isolation of HeV from pteropid bats corroborates our earlier serological and epidemiological evidence that they are a natural reservoir host of the virus.
自1994年在澳大利亚首次被发现以来,亨德拉病毒(HeV)已在马匹和人类中引发了两起致命疾病疫情,以及一例孤立的马匹致死病例。我们的初步研究显示,狐蝠属蝙蝠中存在高比例的抗HeV中和抗体,但尚不清楚这是由于感染了HeV还是相关病毒。我们提出了一个假说,即蝙蝠排出HeV可能与分娩过程有关,因此我们将生殖道作为病毒分离的目标。从一只灰头狐蝠(Pteropus poliocephalus)的子宫液以及一组胎儿肺和肝脏中,以及从一只黑狐蝠(P. alecto)的胎儿肺中获得了三株病毒分离株。从抗原性来看,这些分离株似乎与HeV密切相关,在免疫荧光抗体染色和固定血清可变病毒中和试验中呈阳性结果。使用HeV特异性寡核苷酸引物对,扩增了分离株的基因组序列。对基质基因中200个核苷酸进行测序后确定,这三株分离株与HeV相同。当从原始材料中提取的RNA在HeV Taqman检测中呈HeV RNA阳性时,证实了分离结果。从狐蝠中分离出HeV,证实了我们早期的血清学和流行病学证据,即它们是该病毒的天然宿主。