29 July
Thakur S, Kelkar D, Garg S, et al. Why Should RNA Viruses Have All the Fun – Monkeypox, a Close Relative of Smallpox and a DNA Virus. J Glob Infect Dis. 2022 Jun 29;14(2):47-49. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/35910829. Full text: https://doi.org/10.4103/jgid.jgid_104_22
“The ongoing events around this DNA virus MPX makes us review the potential future possibilities, threats, and outcomes associated with this virus. MPX and SPX have been affecting humans for thousands of years since they settled for agriculture, producing somewhat similar clinical manifestations.To understand the reasons behind reemergence of MPX after 40 years of SPX eradication, we must study the similarities and differences between the two close relatives, i.e., MPX and SPX.”
29 July
Wang L, Shang J, Weng S, et al. Genomic Annotation and Molecular Evolution of Monkeypox Virus Outbreak in 2022. J Med Virol. 2022 Jul 29. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/35906185. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.28036
The authors illustrate the genome evolution of the ongoing MPXV outbreak.
14 July 2022
Forni D, Molteni C, Cagliani R, Sironi M. Geographic structuring and divergence time frame of monkeypox virus in the endemic region. J Infect Dis. 2022 Jul 14:jiac298. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/35831941. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiac298
The authors discuss the genetic diversity and separation timeframe of monkeypox virus in endemic areas (i.e., where the virus has spent the overwhelming majority of its evolutionary history). They estimate that the two clades separated ~560-860 years ago.
12 July 2022
Luna N, Ramírez AL, Muñoz M, et al. Phylogenomic analysis of the monkeypox virus (MPXV) 2022 outbreak: Emergence of a novel viral lineage? Travel Med Infect Dis. 2022 Jul 12:102402. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/35840078. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2022.102402
The authors performed a phylogenomic analysis of available Monkeypox virus (MPXV) genomes to determine their evolution and diversity. All MPXV genomes grouped into three monophyletic clades, where the newly classified lineage B.1 includes all MPXV genomes from the 2022 outbreak. The authors estimate that the B.1 lineage emerged in Europe on 03/02/2022 [95%CI = 11/13/2021 to 50/10/2022].
2 July 2022
Pfaff F, Hoffmann D, Beer M. Monkeypox genomic surveillance will challenge lessons learned from SARS-CoV-2. Lancet. 2022 Jul 2;400(10345):22-23. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/35780786. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01106-0
The authors waren that unlike smallpox, other orthopoxviruses have reservoirs in wildlife, such as cowpox virus (in voles), taterapox virus (in African gerbils), and monkeypox virus (in small mammals) and thus have the potential to spill into the human population, thereby facilitating a restart of the genetic adaptation of the virus to the human host, which once resulted in variola virus.
25 June 2022
Claro IM, Romano CM, Candido DDS, et al. Shotgun metagenomic sequencing of the first case of monkeypox virus in Brazil, 2022. Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo. 2022 Jun 24;64:e48. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/35749419. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1590/S1678-9946202264048. eCollection 2022
The authors describe the almost complete genome of the first monkeypox cases in Brazil.
24 June 2022
Isidro J, Borges V, Pinto M, et al. Phylogenomic characterization and signs of microevolution in the 2022 multi-country outbreak of monkeypox virus. Nat Med. 2022 Jun 24. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/35750157. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01907-y
Using shotgun metagenomics to reconstruct and analyze the first MPXV outbreak genome sequences, the authors show that this MPXV belongs to clade 3 and that the outbreak most likely has a single origin. An in-depth mutational analysis further suggests the action of host APOBEC3 in viral evolution as well as signs of potential MPXV human adaptation in ongoing microevolution.
19 April 2022
Mauldin MR, McCollum AM, Nakazawa YJ, et al. Exportation of Monkeypox Virus From the African Continent. J Infect Dis. 2022 Apr 19;225(8):1367-1376. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32880628. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiaa559
The authors describe four individuals traveling from Nigeria to the United Kingdom (n = 2), Israel (n = 1), and Singapore (n = 1) who became the first human monkeypox cases exported from Africa. They analyze epidemiological and molecular data for exported and Nigerian cases to “better understand the exportations in the temporal and geographic context of the outbreak”.
14 February 2022
Babkin IV, Babkina IN, Tikunova NV. An Update of Orthopoxvirus Molecular Evolution. Viruses. 2022 Feb 14;14(2):388. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/35215981. Full text: https://doi.org/10.3390/v14020388
The authors calculate that the orthopoxviruses of the Old and New Worlds separated approximately 40,000 years ago. The rest of modern orthopoxvirus species would have originated from 1700 to 6000 years ago, with the exception of VARV (smallpox), which emerged in approximately 300 AD. The monkeypox virus West African subtype would have originated approximately 600 years ago.
5 November 2020
Alakunle E, Moens U, Nchinda G, Okeke MI. Monkeypox Virus in Nigeria: Infection Biology, Epidemiology, and Evolution. Viruses. 2020 Nov 5;12(11):1257. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/33167496. Full text: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7694534
“This review X-rays the current state of knowledge pertaining the infection biology, epidemiology, and evolution of MPXV in Nigeria and worldwide, especially with regard to the human, cellular, and viral factors that modulate the virus transmission dynamics, infection, and its maintenance in nature.”
11 August 2012
Cann JA, Jahrling PB, Hensley LE, Wahl-Jensen V. Comparative pathology of smallpox and monkeypox in man and macaques. J Comp Pathol. 2013 Jan;148(1):6-21. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/22884034. Full text: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcpa.2012.06.007
The paper provides a contemporary review (2012) of smallpox, as well as discussion of how it compares with human monkeypox and the corresponding diseases in macaques.
