Recently, the world's leading medical journal New England Medicine (NEJM) published a joint communication article between Chinese and Singaporean scientists. It reported that a new type of animal-derived Henipavirus that can infect humans was found to be avirus in Shandong and Henan provinces of China.

Henipa virus is one of the major emerging causes of zoonosis in the Asia-Pacific region, with a fatality rate between 40% and 75%.There is no vaccine or treatment for Henipa virus. The only treatment is supportive care to control complications.

In the study, the scientists, during sentinel surveillance of febrile patients in eastern China with a history of recent animal exposure,A new strain of Henipa virus was identified in a throat swab sample from a patient and named Langya virus (LayV).

The genome of LayV consists of 18,402 nucleotides and has the same genomic organization as other Henipaviruses.

In phylogenetic tree, this strain was found to be a new strain, which was most related to Henipa virus previously discovered in Mojiang, Yunnan Province.

A subsequent investigation found thatThirty-five patients with acute LayV infection were identified in Shandong and Henan provinces of China, 26 of which were infected only with LayV (no other pathogens were detected). The clinical symptoms of these 26 patients were fever (100%), fatigue (54%), cough (50%), anorexia (50%), myalgia (46%), nausea (38%), headache (35%), vomiting (35%), Thrombocytopenia (35%), leukopenia (54%), impaired liver function (35%) and renal function (8%) were associated.

In addition, serological studies of domestic animals showed positive serum antibodies in goats (3/168 [2%]) and dogs (4/79 [5%]). Among the 25 wild small mammal species studied, LayV RNA was detected mainly in shrews (71/262 [27%]), a finding that suggests that shrews may be a natural host of LayV.

Although previous reports suggested human-to-human transmission of Henipa virus, the investigators noted that no significant spatial or temporal clustering of cases and LayV haplotypes was observed. In other words,It has not been determined whether LayV can be transmitted from person to person.

Figure A shows “ Reed {langya} & throughout; Genome structure of a virus (LayV). The figure is drawn to scale and the scale bar is shown at the bottom. The abbreviation NT stands for nucleotide.

Figure B shows “ Reed {langya} & throughout; Phylogenetic analysis of viruses. The tree was constructed using maximum likelihood based on the complete amino acid sequences of RNA-guided RNA polymerases from LayV and other recognized species in the paramyxoviridae family.

Panel C shows the diagnosis. Reed {langya} & throughout; Provincial location, occupation, sex, and temporal patterns of virus-infected patients.