Hung Su-Jhen, Huang Sheng-Wen
National Mosquito-Borne Diseases Control Research Center, National Health Research Institutes, Tainan, Taiwan.
Front Microbiol. 2021 May 6;12:655065. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.655065. eCollection 2021.
Mosquito-borne Zika virus (ZIKV) was considered an obscure virus causing only mild or self-limited symptoms until the explosive outbreaks in French Polynesia in 2013-2014 and in the Americas in 2015-2016, resulting in more than 700,000 cases of the disease, with occasional miscarriage and severe congenital birth defects, such as intrauterine growth restriction, fetal microcephaly, and other neurodevelopmental malformations. In this review, we summarized the evolution of ZIKV from a mundane virus to an epidemic virus. ZIKV has acquired a panel of amino acid substitutions during evolution when the virus spread from Africa, Asia, Pacific, through to the Americas. Robust occurrence of mutations in the evolution of ZIKV has increased its epidemic potential. Here we discussed the contributions of these evolutionary mutations to the enhancement of viral pathogenicity and host-mosquito transmission. We further explored the potential hypotheses for the increase in ZIKV activity in recent decades. Through this review, we also explored the hypotheses for the occurrence of the recent ZIKV epidemics and highlighted the potential roles of various factors including pathogen-, host-, vector-related, and environmental factors, which may have synergistically contributed to the ZIKV epidemics.
蚊媒传播的寨卡病毒（ZIKV）曾被认为是一种只会引发轻微症状或自限性症状的无名病毒，直到2013 - 2014年在法属波利尼西亚以及2015 - 2016年在美洲爆发疫情，导致超过70万例该疾病病例，并偶尔出现流产以及严重的先天性出生缺陷，如宫内生长受限、胎儿小头畸形和其他神经发育畸形。在本综述中，我们总结了寨卡病毒从一种普通病毒演变为一种流行病毒的过程。当寨卡病毒从非洲、亚洲、太平洋传播到美洲时，在进化过程中获得了一系列氨基酸替换。寨卡病毒进化过程中大量突变的出现增加了其流行潜力。在此我们讨论了这些进化突变对增强病毒致病性和宿主 - 蚊子传播的作用。我们进一步探讨了近几十年来寨卡病毒活性增加的潜在假说。通过本综述，我们还探讨了近期寨卡病毒疫情发生的假说，并强调了包括病原体、宿主、媒介相关以及环境因素等各种因素的潜在作用，这些因素可能协同促成了寨卡病毒疫情的爆发。
