Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine, Department of Virology, Clinical Virology Laboratory, Bernhard Nocht Strasse 74, D-20359 Hamburg, Germany.
Infect Genet Evol. 2011 Jan;11(1):1-10. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2010.08.014. Epub 2010 Sep 15.
Varicella-zoster virus (VZV, Human herpesvirus 3), a world-wide distributed pathogen, is the causative agent of varicella (chickenpox) and zoster (shingles). Both diseases result in significant morbidity and economic burden. The implementation of routine varicella vaccination programs in many countries may reduce significantly the incidence of varicella disease. Furthermore, vaccination against zoster can diminish the burden of zoster considerably. Although many epidemiological, clinical and laboratory studies were performed in the past decades to reveal the clinical burden as well as epidemiological features and changes of the two diseases caused by VZV, a comparatively low number of molecular epidemiological studies have been performed to investigate and monitor the genetic variability and phylogenetic relationship of VZV strains throughout the world. To date, it is well established that VZV can be divided into five major clades confirmed by full-genome sequencing and two provisional clades that have to be confirmed. Additionally, several studies have demonstrated a regional dominance of specific VZV clades, most likely in dependence on environmental factors, evolutionary conditions and host-virus interactions and/or importation of viral strains. However, there are many open questions such as the alteration of genotype distribution through immigration or travel, the introduction of the varicella vaccine strain into population and the emergence of wild-type vaccine recombinant viruses. To increase our knowledge in this field by further innovative approaches, the new common nomenclature of VZV clades established recently will be very useful. In this review, the currently available data concerning the geographic distribution and evolution of VZV clades are summarized. Different models of VZV evolution and recombination are discussed and recent changes in VZV clade distribution addressed.
水痘-带状疱疹病毒（VZV，人类疱疹病毒 3）是一种广泛分布的病原体，是水痘（水痘）和带状疱疹（带状疱疹）的病原体。这两种疾病都会导致发病率和经济负担显著增加。在许多国家实施常规水痘疫苗接种计划可能会大大降低水痘发病率。此外，接种带状疱疹疫苗可以大大减轻带状疱疹的负担。尽管过去几十年进行了许多流行病学、临床和实验室研究，以揭示由 VZV 引起的两种疾病的临床负担以及流行病学特征和变化，但相对较少的分子流行病学研究用于调查和监测世界各地 VZV 株的遗传变异性和系统发育关系。迄今为止，已经证实 VZV 可以分为五个主要的进化枝，这是通过全基因组测序确定的，还有两个暂定的进化枝有待确认。此外，几项研究表明，特定的 VZV 进化枝在特定地区具有优势，这很可能取决于环境因素、进化条件以及宿主-病毒相互作用和/或病毒株的输入。然而，仍有许多悬而未决的问题，例如通过移民或旅行改变基因型分布、将水痘疫苗株引入人群中和野生型疫苗重组病毒的出现。为了通过进一步的创新方法增加我们在这一领域的知识，最近建立的 VZV 进化枝的新通用命名法将非常有用。在这篇综述中，总结了目前关于 VZV 进化枝的地理分布和进化的可用数据。讨论了不同的 VZV 进化和重组模型，并讨论了 VZV 进化枝分布的最新变化。
