Department of Microbiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, People’s Republic of China.
Emerg Infect Dis. 2013 Apr;19(4):559-65. doi: 10.3201/eid1904.120827.
The recent discovery of hepatitis E virus (HEV) strains in rabbits in the People's Republic of China and the United States revealed that rabbits are another noteworthy reservoir of HEV. However, whether HEV from rabbits can infect humans is unclear. To study the zoonotic potential for and pathogenesis of rabbit HEV, we infected 2 cynomolgus macaques and 2 rabbits with an HEV strain from rabbits in China. Typical hepatitis developed in both monkeys; they exhibited elevated liver enzymes, viremia, virus shedding in fecal specimens, and seroconversion. Comparison of the complete genome sequence of HEV passed in the macaques with that of the inoculum showed 99.8% nucleotide identity. Rabbit HEV RNA (positive- and negative-stranded) was detectable in various tissues from the experimentally infected rabbits, indicating that extrahepatic replication may be common. Thus, HEV is transmissible from rabbits to cynomolgus macaques, which suggests that rabbits may be a new source of human HEV infection.
最近在中国和美国的兔子中发现了戊型肝炎病毒（HEV）株，这表明兔子是另一个值得关注的 HEV 储存宿主。然而，兔子来源的 HEV 是否能感染人类尚不清楚。为了研究兔源 HEV 的人畜共患病潜力和发病机制，我们用来自中国的兔源 HEV 株感染了 2 只食蟹猴和 2 只兔子。两只猴子都出现了典型的肝炎；它们表现出肝酶升高、病毒血症、粪便标本中病毒脱落和血清转换。感染猴子的 HEV 完整基因组序列与接种物相比，核苷酸同一性为 99.8%。从实验感染的兔子的各种组织中均可检测到兔 HEV RNA（正链和负链），表明可能存在肝外复制。因此，HEV 可从兔子传播到食蟹猴，这表明兔子可能是人类 HEV 感染的新来源。
