Beijing Key Laboratory of Paediatric Respiratory Infection Diseases, Key Laboratory of Major Diseases in Children, Ministry of Education, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, National Key Discipline of Paediatrics (Capital Medical University), Beijing Paediatric Research Institute, Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children's Health, Beijing, China.
Research Unit of Critical Infection in Children, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 2019RU016, Beijing, China.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 Mar 11;11:835946. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.835946. eCollection 2021.
WU polyomavirus (WUPyV) is a novel member of the family recently detected in respiratory tract specimens. So far, it has not been proven whether WUPyV is a real causative agent for respiratory diseases. In this study, we described two patients with fatal infection who had WUPyV detected in their nasopharyngeal swabs. Furthermore, we conducted a multicentre study in six hospitals from different districts of China. WUPyV was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction assays, and the clinical and molecular epidemiological characteristics of WUPyV strains among hospitalized children with acute lower respiratory tract infections all around China from 2017 to 2019 were analysed. Two complete WUPyV genome sequences were assembled from fatal patients' airway specimens. Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that they were most closely related to strains derived from Fujian and Chongqing, China, in 2008 and 2013, respectively. In 2017-2019, a total of 1,812 samples from children with acute lower respiratory tract infections were detected for WUPyV, of which 11 (0.6%) were positive. Children aged ≤5 were more susceptible to WUPyV infection. A total of 81.8% of WUPyV-positive patients were coinfected with other viruses, of which rhinovirus enjoyed the highest frequency. The main clinical symptoms of infected patients include fever, coughing and sputum expectoration. Most patients were diagnosed with pneumonia, followed by bronchial surgery. Three patients manifested severe infection, and all patients improved and were discharged. Our results show that WUPyV persistently circulates in China. Further investigations on the clinical role and pathogenicity of WUPyV are necessary.
WU 多瘤病毒（WUPyV）是最近在呼吸道标本中发现的家族中的一个新成员。到目前为止，还没有证据表明 WUPyV 是呼吸道疾病的真正病原体。在本研究中，我们描述了两例致命感染的患者，他们的鼻咽拭子中检测到 WUPyV。此外，我们在中国六个不同地区的六家医院进行了一项多中心研究。通过实时聚合酶链反应检测到 WUPyV，分析了 2017 年至 2019 年中国住院急性下呼吸道感染儿童中 WUPyV 株的临床和分子流行病学特征。从致命患者的气道标本中组装了两个完整的 WUPyV 基因组序列。系统进化树分析显示，它们与分别来自 2008 年和 2013 年中国福建和重庆的菌株最为密切相关。2017-2019 年，共检测到 1812 例急性下呼吸道感染儿童的 WUPyV 样本，其中 11 例（0.6%）为阳性。≤5 岁的儿童更容易感染 WUPyV。WUPyV 阳性患者中有 81.8%合并感染其他病毒，其中鼻病毒感染率最高。感染患者的主要临床症状包括发热、咳嗽和咳痰。大多数患者被诊断为肺炎，其次是支气管手术。3 例患者表现为严重感染，所有患者均好转出院。我们的研究结果表明，WUPyV 在中国持续传播。有必要进一步研究 WUPyV 的临床作用和致病性。
