Abstract
Bats are newly identified reservoirs of hantaviruses (HVs) among which very divergent HVs have been discovered in recent years. However, their significance for public health remains unclear since their seroprevalence as well as antigenic relationship with human-infecting HVs have not been investigated. In the present study archived tissues of 1,419 bats of 22 species from 6 families collected in 5 south and southwest provinces in China were screened by pan-HV RT-PCR following viral metagenomic analysis. As a result nine HVs have been identified in two bat species in two provinces and phylogenetically classified into two species, Laibin virus (LAIV, ICTV approved species, 1 strain) and Xuan son virus (XSV, proposed species, 8 strains). Additionally, 709 serum samples of these bats were also analyzed by ELISA to investigate the seroprevalence and cross-reactivity between different HVs using expressed recombinant nucleocapsid proteins (rNPs) of LAIV, XSV and Seoul virus (SEOV). The cross-reactivity of some bat sera were further confirmed by western blot (WB) using three rNPs followed by fluorescent antibody virus neutralization test (FAVNT) against live SEOV. Results showed that the total HV seropositive rate of bat sera was 18.5% (131/709) with many cross reacting with two or all three rNPs and several able to neutralize SEOV. WB analysis using the three rNPs and their specific hyperimmune sera demonstrated cross-reactivity between XSV/SEOV and LAIV/XSV, but not LAIV/SEOV, indicating that XSV is antigenically closer to human-infecting HVs. In addition a study of the distribution of the viruses identified an area covering the region between Chinese Guangxi and North Vietnam, in which XSV and LAIV circulate within different bat colonies with a high seroprevalence. A circulation sphere of bat-borne HVs has therefore been proposed.
Highlights
Hantaviruses (HVs), members of the genus Orthohantavirus within the family Hantaviridae in the order Bunyavirales, are responsible for two major life-threatening diseases in humans: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Eurasia and hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) in the Americas [1]
The results provide the first profiling of cross-reactivity between bat-borne and human-infecting HVs, demonstrating that some bat sera can neutralize Seoul virus (SEOV) in cell culture
They revealed that divergent bat-borne HVs co-exist and are widely distributed in Chinese Guangxi/Yunnan as well as in north Vietnam, resulting in identification of an area between China and Vietnam in which natural circulation of bat-borne HVs is maintained
Summary
Hantaviruses (HVs), members of the genus Orthohantavirus within the family Hantaviridae in the order Bunyavirales, are responsible for two major life-threatening diseases in humans: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Eurasia and hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) in the Americas [1]. Several bat-borne HVs are presently known, which show large genetic diversities from currently known rodent- and insectivore-borne HVs. The first reported bat-borne HVs, Magboi virus (MGBV) and Mouyassuevirus (MOUV), were identified respectively in Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire of Africa in 2012 [4, 5]. A sister lineage of MOUV was detected in dried blood samples from bats in Eastern Africa (Ethiopia) in 2017 [14]. Of these HVs only three, Laibin, Longquan and Quezon viruses were approved as bat-borne HV species within genus Orthohantavirus in the 10th report of International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) released in 2017 [15]. Due to lack of sufficient bat-borne HV genomic sequences, their evolutionary phylogeny and genetic diversity as well as biological features are poorly understood
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