Ljunganvirus

The Ljunganvirus is a virus that infects rodents. It has been described the mid-1990s for the first time. The virus was originally in the Swedish province Medelpad isolated near the Ljunganflusses from bank voles ( Myodes glareolus ). It could later be detected in other countries of Europe and America and causes serious diseases in wildlife and laboratory animals.

Features

The virus particles in the electron microscope appear as spherical, without specific characteristics and have a diameter of about 27 nanometers. The genome consists of ( ) ssRNA with a length of about 7600 base pairs excluding the poly A tail and a GC content of 42%. It codes for a polyprotein having subunits composed of three capsid proteins, a protein for the processing of the polyprotein, two membrane-associated proteins, a protease, an ATPase, an inhibitor of cell growth, an initiator of the RNA transcription and a reverse transcriptase.

Pathology

Several scientific publications over the past year about the relationship of a Ljunganvirusinfektion with malformations of the newborn, fetal death and Sudden infant death syndrome in humans. Worldwide studies are examining whether diabetes, neurological and other human diseases in possible connection with the infection are through the Ljunganvirus. Ljunganvirus is classified in the genus Parechovirus, into the family of picornaviruses. Other members of this family are, for example, poliovirus, hepatitis A virus and rhinovirus, which is the cause of colds. One of the first scientific discoveries was that Ljunganvirus infected wild rodents with diabetes become ill when they are exposed to stressful situations. This led to the assumption that this disease is the underlying cause of fluctuations in rodent populations in Scandinavia; if the density of a rodent populations increases, it is difficult for the individual animal to defend the territory, to obtain food, and it comes rather than prey animal in question. This stressful situation leads to disease, death and resulting in a decrease in population density. A sequence are cyclic changes in the size of the rodent population in the course of time.

Credentials

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