Just after the Covid pandemic, the year 2022 was marked by an alarming increase in the number of cases of monkeypox. A study sheds light on the potential reasons for this meteoric rise in contamination.
It was the summer of 2022, the sunny days were returning and we were just beginning to enjoy the lull in the Covid-19 pandemic, when a new scare swept across the entire world.
Nearly 100,000 reported cases of monkeypox
An outbreak of monkeypox cases that surprised Europe and the rest of the world with its speed of spread, showing increased transmission capacity (to the point that even pets were infected). Vaccination of contact cases has made it possible to control the epidemic, but the reasons for this increased transmissibility have not yet been elucidated.
Certainly, studies have shown that the virus responsible for this disease mutates more quickly, which could explain a more rapid evolution. However, the specific mutations that would have given the pathogen its transmission superpowers have not been identified. A study published on April 18, 2024 in the journal Nature Communications finally identified some candidate mutations, located in regions of the viral genome that have been little studied before.
This 2022 outbreak has caused the number to explode cases worldwide, reaching nearly 100,000 cases reported in 118 countries. The vast majority of these cases were infected with Mpox viruses (Simian Orthopoxvirus, of the family of Poxviridae) of clade II, although considered less transmissible than those of clade I. The genome of this virus consists of a DNA double helix of approximately 197,000 base pairs, including approximately 200 protein-coding genes.
Ua virus that knows how to adapt
This DNA virus has several strategies for evolution under stress. First, it has the possibility of duplicating these genes in order to allow more mutations. Then, the copies with advantageous mutations are kept and the others are eliminated. Another possibility is to shift all the nucleic acids (A, G, C, T, the building blocks that form DNA) of a gene by adding a new nucleic acid (or removing one already there)[…]
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