Mokola-Virus
The Mokola virus belongs to the lyssaviruses, whose most famous representative of the causative agent of rabies ( rabies virus ). It belongs to the genetically most distant with rabies (genotype 1) related lyssaviruses. The Mokola of the virus genome consists of single-stranded RNA of negative polarity.
Construction
The RNA genome of the Mokola virus encodes five proteins. The glycoprotein (G ) is a membrane protein and the virus receptor and causes the fusion of the viral membrane with the cell membrane of the host cell to release the interior of the virion. The matrix protein coated the ribonucleoprotein consisting of the nucleoprotein (N) of the RNA polymerase for rewriting the (-) RNA ( ) RNA and another cofactor.
Occurrence
The virus has only been found in sub-Saharan Africa. It was first isolated in 1968 from a shrew near Ibadan, Nigeria. The host range is not known. The Mokola virus was isolated three times from shrews and twice from people in the years 1969 and 1971. However, the virus could be transmitted by mosquitoes, since they can multiply in vitro in mosquito cells. Thus they also differ from the other representatives of lyssavirus, which can multiply in insect cells do not, with the exception of very distantly related rhabdoviruses as Obodhiang and Kotonkan. The propagation of the virus in living mosquitoes was found.
Pathogenesis
In humans, only two cases of acute Mokola virus infection have been discovered to date. These were two Nigerian children. Symptoms were the same as in case of rabies infection. Thus, the children suffered for example, paralysis of their extremities, also by encephalitis was established. Both died a few days after they had fallen into a coma. From their brain tissue could be isolated Mokola viruses. In dogs, cats, cattle, sheep, goats and rodents from Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe also Mokola viruses could be found. Some of examined animals had produced antibodies against the Mokola virus. There is as yet no vaccine and rabies vaccines do not protect against the Mokola virus.
Credentials
- Viruses, viroids and prions