Mécanismes d’émergence virale et transmission interespèces : l’exemple des rétrovirus Foamy simiens chezl’Homme en Afrique Centrale

• Published in: Bulletin de l'Académie Nationale de Médecine
• Main Author: Gessain, Antoine
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: l’Académie nationale de médecine. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS 2013
• Subjects: Article; Avian flu
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7111110/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26137812; https://doi.org/10.1016/S0001-4079(19)31387-1

A large proportion of viral pathogens that have emerged during the last decades in humans are considered to have originated from various animal species. This is well exemplified by several recent epidemics such as those of Nipah, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Avian flu, Ebola, Monkeypox, and Hantaviruses. After the initial interspecies transmission per se, the viruses can disseminate into the human population through various and distinct mechanisms. Some of them are well characterized and understood, thus allowing a certain level of risk control and prevention. Surprisingly and in contrast, the initial steps that lead to the emergence of several viruses, and of their associated diseases, remain still poorly understood. Epidemiological field studies conducted in certain specific high-risk populations are thus necessary to obtain new insights into the early events of this emergence process. Human infections by simian viruses represent increasing public health concerns. Indeed, by virtue of their genetic and physiological similarities, non-human primates (NHPs) are considered to be likely the sources of viruses that can infect humans and thus may pose a significant threat to human population. This is well illustrated by retroviruses, which have the ability to cross species, adapt to a new host and sometimes spread within these new species. Sequence comparison and phylogenetic studies have thus clearly showed that the emergence of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV-2 in humans have resulted from several independent interspecies transmissions of different SIV types from Chimpanzees and African monkeys (including sooty mangabeys), respectively, probably during the first part of the last century. The situation for Human T cell Lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is, for certain aspects, quite comparable. Indeed, the origin of most HTLV-1 subtypes appears to be linked to interspecies transmission between STLV-1-infected monkeys and humans, followed by variable periods of evolution in the human host. ...