Kenya Medical Research Institute, Centre for Virus Research, Nairobi, Kenya.
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya.
PLoS One. 2024 Sep 20;19(9):e0310862. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310862. eCollection 2024.
Emerging tick-borne viruses of medical and veterinary importance are increasingly being reported globally. This resurgence emphasizes the need for sustained surveillance to provide insights into tick-borne viral diversity and associated potential public health risks. We report on a virus tentatively designated Kinna virus (KIV) in the family Phenuiviridae and genus Bandavirus. The virus was isolated from a pool of Amblyomma gemma ticks from Kinna in Isiolo County, Kenya. High throughput sequencing of the virus isolate revealed close relatedness to the Guertu virus. The virus genome is consistent with the described genomes of other members of the genus Bandavirus, with nucleotides lengths of 6403, 3332 and 1752 in the Large (L), Medium (M) and Small (S) segments respectively. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the virus clustered with Guertu virus although it formed a distinct and well supported branch. The RdRp amino acid sequence had a 93.3% identity to that of Guertu virus, an indication that the virus is possibly novel. Neutralizing antibodies were detected in 125 (38.6%, 95% CI 33.3-44.1%) of the human sera from the communities in this region. In vivo experiments showed that the virus was lethal to mice with death occurring 6-9 days post-infection. The virus infected mammalian cells (Vero cells) but had reduced infectivity in the mosquito cell line (C636) tested.
Isolation of this novel virus with the potential to cause disease in human and animal populations necessitates the need to evaluate its public health significance and contribution to disease burden in the affected regions. This also points to the need for continuous monitoring of vector and human populations in high-risk ecosystems to update pathogen diversity.
具有医学和兽医重要性的新兴蜱传病毒在全球范围内的报道日益增多。这种复苏强调了需要进行持续监测，以深入了解蜱传病毒的多样性及其相关的潜在公共卫生风险。我们报告了一种暂定名为基纳病毒（KIV）的病毒，属于 Phenuiviridae 科和 Bandavirus 属。该病毒是从肯尼亚伊西奥洛县基纳的 Amblyomma gemma 蜱虫池中分离出来的。病毒分离株的高通量测序显示与 Guertu 病毒密切相关。该病毒基因组与其他 Bandavirus 属成员的描述基因组一致，大（L）、中（M）和小（S）片段的核苷酸长度分别为 6403、3332 和 1752。系统发育分析表明，该病毒与 Guertu 病毒聚类，但形成了一个独特且支持良好的分支。RdRp 氨基酸序列与 Guertu 病毒的相似度为 93.3%，表明该病毒可能是新的。在该地区社区的 125 个人类血清样本（38.6%，95%CI 33.3-44.1%）中检测到中和抗体。体内实验表明，该病毒对小鼠具有致死性，感染后 6-9 天死亡。该病毒感染哺乳动物细胞（Vero 细胞），但在测试的蚊子细胞系（C636）中的感染性降低。
分离出这种具有在人类和动物群体中引起疾病潜力的新型病毒，需要评估其公共卫生意义及其对受影响地区疾病负担的贡献。这也表明需要持续监测高风险生态系统中的媒介和人群，以更新病原体多样性。
