Researchers have found a new virus, CyCV-VN, in patients with severe brain infections in Vietnam.
Researchers at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Wellcome Trust South East Asia Major Overseas Programme and the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, have identified a new virus named CyCV-VN, in patients with severe brain infections in Vietnam. The virus was found in 28 of 644 patients that were diagnosed with brain infection but not in the 122 patients that had non-infectious brain disorders.
Brain infections are usually fatal and even those who survive them are left disabled. These infections can be caused by bacterial, parasitic, fungal and viral agents but scientists are yet to determine the exact cause. Owing to this uncertainty, proper treatments and medication for brain infections have not been developed yet.
However, after discovering the presence of a new virus in the brain fluids of two patients with severe brain infections of unknown cause, researchers went on to conduct a study and found the same virus in 26 other patients among the 642 that were diagnosed with brain infections. The virus was confirmed to be of a new species and belonged to a family of virus known as Circoviridae, normally found to cause diseases only in animals.
Dr Rogier van Doorn, Head of Emerging Infections at the Wellcome Trust Vietnam Research Programme and Oxford University Clinical Research Unit Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Vietnam said in a press release that while he and his team are not certain that this virus causes brain infection, the discovery is very important to understand the potential threat of this virus to human and animal health.
CyCV-VN was not found in the blood samples of the patients but was detected in 8 out of 188 fecal samples of healthy children. It was also present in the fecal samples of half of the pigs and chickens that were tested during the study. The animals belonged to the local area where one of the patients with the virus lived. This led researchers to rule in the possibility of an animal source of infection.
"The evidence so far seems to suggest that CyCV-VN may have crossed into humans from animals, another example of a potential zoonotic infection," Dr Le Van Tan, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit, Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Programme, said. "However, detecting the virus in human samples is not in itself sufficient evidence to prove that the virus is causing disease, particularly since the virus could also be detected in patients with other known viral or bacterial causes of brain infection. While detection of this virus in the fluid around the brain is certainly remarkable, it could still be that it doesn't cause any harm. Clearly we need to do more work to understand the role this virus may play in these severe infections."
Researchers are now trying to grow the virus in their laboratory in order to develop an antibody that could help patients become immune to the virus.
The study was published in the journal mBio from the American Society for Microbiology.
