Overview of Q fever in Brazil: an underestimated zoonosis

This review aims to provide current information about Q fever, elucidating the etiological, epidemiological, pathogenic, clinical, diagnostic, therapeutic, and prophylactic aspects of the disease for the medical community. We discuss the main forms of presentation of the agent, its ability to persist in the body, the infinite possibilities of susceptible hosts, the main known forms of transmission, its importance in populations at occupational risk, and the role of arthropods in the natural history of the disease. Focusing on Brazil, we present the cases already described and studies developed since its first report, and how there is still much to unravel. We are aware of the possibilities of the persistence of the agent and the development of severe clinical pictures and the specific treatments currently instituted. We also wish to raise awareness about the future, the new genotypes that are emerging, the need to study the effects of vaccines, and the impact of Q fever on the population. Q fever is a poorly understood disease in Latin America, and recent studies, especially in Brazil, have revealed the importance of developing new studies

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in children: case report and case series from an endemic area of Brazil

Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome (HCPS) is an important emergent zoonosis associated with wild rodents in Brazil, where this viral infection in children is generally rare. We present HCPS in a child from the Pantanal Biome and a review of all reported pediatric cases in Mato Grosso State, an endemic area for HCPS in Brazil. The investigation used the Information System for Notifiable Diseases database (SINAN). A 12-year-old boy was hospitalized with fever and respiratory failure and hantavirus IgM and IgG antibodies were detected by ELISA in serum samples. During the period of 1999 to 2016, 32 HCPS pediatric cases confirmed by serology were reported to SINAN with a mortality rate of 34.4%. The possibility of hantavirus infection in children with acute febrile illness associated with respiratory failure should be considered mainly in recognized endemic areas as Mato Grosso State, contradicting a hypothesis that children are more protected from lung involvement

Seroprevalence of rodent-borne viruses in Afro-descendent communities in Brazil

During the Brazilian slavery period, many African migrants were brought to the American continent. Historically, some of these migrants escaped from the Brazilian gold mines and farms to which they had been brought and settled in remote valleys and this was the main mode of resistance to the slavery system. These runaway-slave descendant communities are called quilombos, a group with distinct ethnic identity, specific behavioral habits, including geographic isolation and conservative practices. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of rodent-borne viruses in two Afro-descendent communities from Mato Grosso do Sul State, Midwestern Brazil. A total of 319 individuals from rural and urban quilombola communities were enrolled. Twelve (3.76%) had anti-rodent-borne virus IgG antibodies. Seven (2.19%) were anti-mammarenavirus reactive and nine (2.82%) had anti-orthohantavirus antibodies. The literature includes limited data on the health status of quilombola communities, but all the studies emphasize the disparity of attention of local healthcare personnel to these communities compared to the general population. The findings of this study highlight the vulnerability and the precarious health conditions of quilombola groups, especially those living in rural areas and thus, point to the need of preventive measures to improve access to healthcare for this ethnic group

Coxiella burnetii Infection in Livestock, Pets, Wildlife, and Ticks in Latin America and the Caribbean: a Comprehensive Review of the Literature

Purpose of the Review Q fever , a bacterial zoonosis caused by Coxiella burnetii, is reported very heterogeneously in humans in Latin America. The objective of this study was to review the data on Coxiella burnetii Infection in animals in Latin America and the Caribbean. Recent Findings A comprehensive literature review was carried out in the 47 countries and territories of Latin America on various search engines and grouped into four groups: livestock, pets, wildlife, and ticks. Summary Thus, 113 studies were selected between 1950 and 2022. Among the 47 countries, only 25 (53%) had at least one publication related to C. burnetii infection in animals. The most productive country was Brazil (N = 51), followed by French Guiana (N = 21), and Colombia (N = 16). Studies in livestock from 20 countries have shown widely varying country-to-country rates of seroprevalence, ranging from 0 to 67%. Some studies from seven countries, especially French Guiana and Brazil, found antibodies and sometimes positive PCR in dogs and cats, generally in the context of investigations around human clustered cases. Knowledge remained fragmented about infection in wildlife from only five countries (Chile, Colombia, Brazil, French Guiana, and Uruguay). C. burnetii infection was identified by PCR in Chiroptera (7 species), Rodentia (6 species), Suina (2 species), Xenartha (1 species), Cingulata (1 species), and Perissodactyla (1 species). Studies on Coxiella sp. in ticks have been performed in 11 countries, mostly in Brazil, and mainly found Coxiella-like endosymbionts. Thus, data on C. burnetii infection in animals are sparse and incomplete in Latin America and the Caribbean, and more research is warranted

2020 taxonomic update for phylum Negarnaviricota (Riboviria: Orthornavirae), including the large orders Bunyavirales and Mononegavirales.

In March 2020, following the annual International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) ratification vote on newly proposed taxa, the phylum Negarnaviricota was amended and emended. At the genus rank, 20 new genera were added, two were deleted, one was moved, and three were renamed. At the species rank, 160 species were added, four were deleted, ten were moved and renamed, and 30 species were renamed. This article presents the updated taxonomy of Negarnaviricota as now accepted by the ICTV

MicroRNAs and Mammarenaviruses: Modulating Cellular Metabolism

Mammarenaviruses are a diverse genus of emerging viruses that include several causative agents of severe viral hemorrhagic fevers with high mortality in humans. Although these viruses share many similarities, important differences with regard to pathogenicity, type of immune response, and molecular mechanisms during virus infection are different between and within New World and Old World viral infections. Viruses rely exclusively on the host cellular machinery to translate their genome, and therefore to replicate and propagate. miRNAs are the crucial factor in diverse biological processes such as antiviral defense, oncogenesis, and cell development. The viral infection can exert a profound impact on the cellular miRNA expression profile, and numerous RNA viruses have been reported to interact directly with cellular miRNAs and/or to use these miRNAs to augment their replication potential. Our present study indicates that mammarenavirus infection induces metabolic reprogramming of host cells, probably manipulating cellular microRNAs. A number of metabolic pathways, including valine, leucine, and isoleucine biosynthesis, d-Glutamine and d-glutamate metabolism, thiamine metabolism, and pools of several amino acids were impacted by the predicted miRNAs that would no longer regulate these pathways. A deeper understanding of mechanisms by which mammarenaviruses handle these signaling pathways is critical for understanding the virus/host interactions and potential diagnostic and therapeutic targets, through the inhibition of specific pathologic metabolic pathways

Arenavírus no Brasil: eco-epidemiologia e os aspectos de sua ocorrência no processo de expansão da agricultura familiar

Submitted by Repositório Arca ([email protected]) on 2019-07-02T17:51:34Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) jorlan_jesus_ioc_dout_2018.pdf: 21430207 bytes, checksum: efcc22c1bb925e0f593cfd6dc6dd8fa0 (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Aguiar ([email protected]) on 2019-11-22T16:43:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 jorlan_jesus_ioc_dout_2018.pdf: 21430207 bytes, checksum: efcc22c1bb925e0f593cfd6dc6dd8fa0 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2019-11-22T16:43:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 jorlan_jesus_ioc_dout_2018.pdf: 21430207 bytes, checksum: efcc22c1bb925e0f593cfd6dc6dd8fa0 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Aproximadamente 84,4% dos estabelecimentos agropecuários do país são de agricultura familiar. No entanto, apesar de ser responsável por grande parte da produção de alimentos do Brasil, a agricultura familiar gera, em média, apenas 38% da receita dos estabelecimentos agropecuários do país. O Plano Brasil Sem Miséria possui estratégias especificas para essa população, com objetivo de fortalecer as atividades realizadas pelas famílias extremamente pobres da agricultura familiar, aumentando a sua capacidade produtiva e a entrada de seus produtos nos mercados consumidores. Neste contexto, os programas de incentivo à agricultura e à preservação ambiental devem ser atrelados à vigilância epidemiológica relacionada a zoonoses, como é o caso das arenaviroses. Arenavírus são responsáveis por causar graves doenças em humanos com altas taxas de letalidade. No Brasil, após a identificação do primeiro e único caso de febre hemorrágica brasileira, em 1990, nenhum estudo, até o momento, identificou o reservatório do vírus Sabiá. Considerando que o cenário de acelerada fragmentação estimulada pela agriculta foi o mesmo vivenciado em outros países com ocorrência de febres hemorrágicas por arenavírus e que este evento pode ser um fator determinante para a sua emergência, o presente estudo foi desenvolvido em três etapas distintas. A primeira, desenvolvida a partir da identificação de áreas de circulação de arenavírus em roedores silvestres de diferentes regiões do Brasil resultou na descrição de cinco arenavírus em oito diferentes espécies de roedores, com a caracterização de três novas espécies da família Arenaviridae que foram denominadas Aporé, Rio Preto e Xapuri Co-infecção de mammarenavírus e hantavírus foi detectada no roedor da espécie Oligoryzomys mattogrossae, mas nenhum evento de spillover foi observado entre os roedores incluídos no estudo. A segunda etapa foi constituída por um inquérito sorológico para detecção de infecção por mammarenavírus em 1.099 amostras de soro de diferentes populações rurais, nos estados do Acre, Goiás, Mato Grosso e Mato Grosso do Sul. Uma prevalência total de 1,63% foi encontrada, variando de 0,64% a 2,91 %, com presença de indivíduos reativos em todas as localidades estudadas. A terceira etapa do estudo foi pautada na divulgação de resultados para órgãos de vigilância em saúde com a produção de duas notas técnicas alertando sobre a necessidade da intensificação da vigilância epidemiológica das infecções por arenavírus. Foram também gerados, com foco na prevenção das arenaviroses, um folder e uma cartilha bilíngue ilustrada voltada para o público infanto-juvenil, visando à propagação do conhecimento e apoio à instiuição de um sistema de vigilância nas regiões comprovadamente com mammarenavírus circulantes, em conjunto com as ações previamente instituídas pelos diferentes programas relacionados com a agricultura familiar e com o combate à pobreza.Approximately 84.4% of agricultural establishments in the country are family farmers. However, despite being responsible for much of Brazil's food production, family farm generates, on average, only 38% of the income of agricultural establishments in the country. The “Brasil sem Miséria” program has specific strategies to help this population, with the objective of strengthening activities developed by extremely poor families, increasing their productive capacity and increasing their products sales in the consumer markets. In this context, programs that incentive agriculture and environmental preservation should be linked to epidemiological surveillance systems related to zoonosis, as arenaviruses. Arenaviruses are responsible for causing diseases in humans with high lethality rates. In Brazil, after the identification of the first and only case of Brazilian hemorrhagic fever in 1990, no study has so far identified the animal reservoir of Sabiá virus. The present study was developed in three distinct stages. The first one, identification of arenavirus circulation in wild rodents from different regions of Brazil, resulted in the description of five arenaviruses in eight different rodent species, with the characterization of three new species of the Arenaviridae family tentatively named Aporé, Rio Preto and Xapuri viruses. Co-infection of mammarenavirus and hantavirus was detected in Oligoryzomys mattogrossae rodents, but no mammarenavirus spillover event was observed in rodents included on the study. The second stage consisted of a serological survey to detect infection by mammarenavirus in 1,099 serum samples from different rural populations from Acre, Goiás, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul states. An overall prevalence of 1.63% was found, ranging from 0.64% to 2.91%. The presence of reactivity was found in all the studied localities. The third stage was the dissemination of results to health surveillance agencies with a warning about the need for epidemiological surveillance intensitication concerning arenavirus infections. Focusing on prevention of arenaviruses and other rodent-borne diseases, a folder and an illustrated bilingual booklet for children were produced, aiming to the spread of knowledge and support to implementation of a surveillance system in regions of confermed mammarenaviruses circulation, in conjunction with the actions previously instituted by different programs related to family farming and rural poverty in Brazil

The Serological Cross-Detection of Bat-Borne Hantaviruses: A Valid Strategy or Taking Chances?

Bats are hosts of a range of viruses, and their great diversity and unique characteristics that distinguish them from all other mammals have been related to the maintenance, evolution, and dissemination of these pathogens. Recently, very divergent hantaviruses have been discovered in distinct species of bats worldwide, but their association with human disease remains unclear. Considering the low success rates of detecting hantavirus RNA in bat tissues and that to date no hantaviruses have been isolated from bat samples, immunodiagnostic tools could be very helpful to understand pathogenesis, epidemiology, and geographic range of bat-borne hantaviruses. In this sense, we aimed to identify in silico immunogenic B-cell epitopes present on bat-borne hantaviruses nucleoprotein (NP) and verify if they are conserved among them and other selected members of Mammantavirinae, using a combination of (the three most used) different prediction algorithms, ELLIPRO, Discotope 2.0, and PEPITO server. To support our data, we in silico modeled 3D structures of NPs from representative members of bat-borne hantaviruses, using comparative and ab initio methods due to the absence of crystallographic structures of studied proteins or similar models in the Protein Data Bank. Our analysis demonstrated the antigenic complexity of the bat-borne hantaviruses group, showing a low sequence conservation of epitopes among members of its own group and a minor conservation degree in comparison to Orthohantavirus, with a recognized importance to public health. Our data suggest that the use of recombinant rodent-borne hantavirus NPs to cross-detect antibodies against bat- or shrew-borne viruses could underestimate the real impact of this virus in nature

Aporé virus, a novel mammarenavirus (Bunyavirales: Arenaviridae) related to highly pathogenic virus from South America

Here, we report the complete genome sequence of the Aporé virus (Bunyavirales: Arenaviridae), obtained from a wild rodent Oligoryzomys mattogrossae captured in Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil. The genome of this virus showed strong similarity to highly pathogenic mammarenavirus from South America

Co-circulation of Clade C New World Arenaviruses: New geographic distribution and host species

Fil: Fernandes, Jorlan. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratorio de Hantaviroses e Rickettsioses; Brasil.Fil: Oliveira, Renata Carvalho de. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratorio de Hantaviroses e Rickettsioses; Brasil.Fil: Guterres, Alexandro. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratorio de Hantaviroses e Rickettsioses; Brasil.Fil: de Carvalho Serra, Fabiana. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratorio de Hantaviroses e Rickettsioses; Brasil.Fil: Bonvicino, Cibele Rodrigues. Instituto Nacional do Cancer; Brasil.Fil: D'Andrea, Paulo Sergio. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratorio de Biologia e Parasitologia de Mamiferos Silvestres Reservatorios; Brasil.Fil: Cunha, Rivaldo Venâncio. Fundacao Oswaldo Cryz; Brasil.Fil: Levis, Silvana. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Virales Humanas; Argentina.Fil: Lemos, Elba Regina Sampaio de. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratorio de Hantaviroses e Rickettsioses; Brasil.Clade C, of the New World Arenaviruses, is composed of only the Latino and Oliveros viruses and, besides the geographic range of their rodent reservoirs, the distribution of these viruses has been restricted to Bolivia and Argentina. In this study, the genetic detection and phylogenetic analysis of the complete S segment sequences of sympatric arenaviruses from Brazil revealed a new geographic distribution of clade C arenaviruses, as well as the association of Oliveros virus with a new rodent reservoir