PUUV

Identifying factors that drive infection dynamics in reservoir host populations is essential in understanding human risk from wildlife-originated zoonoses. We studied zoonotic Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV) in the host, the bank vole ( Myodes glareolus ), populations in relation to the host population, rodent and predator community and environment-related factors and whether these processes are translated into human infection incidence. We used 5-year rodent trapping and bank vole PUUV serology data collected from 30 sites located in 24 municipalities in Finland...

The clinical outcome of Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) infection shows extensive variation, ranging from inapparent subclinical infection (70-80%) to severe hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), with about 0.1% of cases being fatal. Most hospitalized patients experience acute kidney injury (AKI), histologically known as acute hemorrhagic tubulointerstitial nephritis. Why this variation? There is no evidence that there would be more virulent and less virulent variants infecting humans, although this has not been extensively studied...

In Europe, most cases of human hantavirus disease are caused by Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV) transmitted by bank voles ( Clethrionomys glareolus, syn. Myodes glareolus ), in which PUUV causes inconspicuous infection. Little is known about tropism and endoparasite coinfections in PUUV-infected reservoir and spillover-infected rodents. Here, we characterized PUUV tropism, pathological changes and endoparasite coinfections. The voles and some non-reservoir rodents were examined histologically, immunohistochemically, by in situ hybridization, indirect IgG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction...

BACKGROUND: Puumala virus (PUUV) is a hantavirus causing haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Studies showing an increased risk of lymphoid malignancies following hantavirus infection, together with the observation that PUUV infects B cells motivated us to study the risk of lymphoid malignancies following PUUV infection. METHODS: We linked data from the Finnish Cancer Registry and National Infectious Diseases Register for 2009-2019. We used a time-dependent Cox regression model to evaluate the hazard of the lymphoid malignancies grouped according to the HAEMACARE classification...

Human Puumala virus (PUUV) infections in Germany fluctuate multi-annually, following fluctuations of the bank vole population size. We applied a transformation to the annual incidence values and established a heuristic method to develop a straightforward robust model for the binary human infection risk at the district level. The classification model was powered by a machine-learning algorithm and achieved 85% sensitivity and 71% precision, despite using only three weather parameters from the previous years as inputs, namely the soil temperature in April of two years before and in September of the previous year, and the sunshine duration in September of two years before...

Hantaviruses are emerging pathogens with a worldwide distribution that can cause life-threatening diseases in humans. Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against hantavirus nucleocapsid (N) proteins are important tools in virus diagnostics, epidemiological studies and basic research studies on virus replication and pathogenesis. Here, we extend the collection of previously generated MAbs raised against a segment of Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV) N protein harbored on virus-like particles (VLPs) and MAbs against N proteins of Sin Nombre orthohantavirus/Andes orthohantavirus by generating nine novel MAbs against N proteins of Dobrava-Belgrade orthohantavirus (DOBV), Tula orthohantavirus (TULV), Thottapalayam thottimvirus (TPMV) and PUUV...

We aimed to estimate the seroprevalence of Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV) among forestry workers in northern France, and to explore sociodemographic risk factors. We conducted a random cross-sectional seroprevalence survey among 1777 forestry workers in 2019-2020. The presence of immunoglobulin G against PUUV antigens in serum was assessed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and confirmed using immunofluorescence assay. Poisson regression models were used to explore factors associated with seropositivity...

Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) infections usually show a mild or moderate clinical course, but may sometimes also lead to life-threatening disease. Here, we report on a 60-year-old female patient with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) who developed a fatal PUUV infection with persistent renal failure, thrombocytopenia, and CNS infection with impaired consciousness and tetraparesis. Hantavirus-specific antibodies could not be detected due to the humoral immunodeficiency. Diagnosis and virological monitoring were based on the quantitative detection of PUUV RNA in blood, cerebrospinal fluid, bronchial lavage, and urine, where viral RNA was found over an unusually extended period of one month...

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) remains a prevalent zoonosis in the Republic of Tatarstan (RT), Russian Federation. Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV), carried by bank voles ( Myodes glareolus ), is the principal zoonotic pathogen of HFRS in the RT. In this study, we sought to demonstrate the similarity of the PUUV genetic sequences detected in HFRS case patients and bank vole samples previously collected in some areas of the RT. Furthermore, we intended to identify the reassortant PUUV genomes and locate a potential site for their emergence...

BACKGROUND: Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) causes most cases of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Europe. PUUV infection is characterised by acute kidney injury, thrombocytopenia and increased capillary leakage. Typical symptoms are fever, headache, nausea, abdominal and back pain. This study aimed to evaluate the amount and distribution of intraperitoneal, retroperitoneal and pleural fluid and the association of fluid collections to the symptoms and clinical findings in patients with acute PUUV infection...

BACKGROUND: Orthohantaviruses and leptospira are emerging zoonotic pathogens of high public health significance. The epidemiology of orthohantavirus infections and leptospirosis is similar and presents related clinical pictures in humans. However, a paucity of data on actual reservoir hosts for orthohantaviruses and leptospira exists. Therefore, this study aimed at determining the occurrence of orthohantaviruses and leptospira in small mammals captured in an endemic region of Sri Lanka...

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is an acute zoonotic disease transmitted through aerosolized excrement of rodents. The etiology of HFRS is complex due to the involvement of viral factors and host immune and genetic factors. The viral species that dominantly cause HFRS are Puumala virus (PUUV), Seoul virus (SEOV), Dobrava-Belgrade virus (DOBV), and Hantaan virus (HTNV). Despite continuous prevention and control measures, HFRS remains a significant public health problem worldwide. The nucleocapsid protein of PUUV, SEOV, DOBV, and HTNV is a multifunctional viral protein involved in various stages of the viral replication cycle...

Orthohantaviruses are rodent-borne emerging viruses that may cause severe diseases in humans but no apparent pathology in their small mammal reservoirs. However, the mechanisms leading to tolerance or pathogenicity in humans and persistence in rodent reservoirs are poorly understood, as is the manner in which they spread within and between organisms. Here, we used a range of cellular and molecular approaches to investigate the interactions of three different orthohantaviruses-Puumala virus (PUUV), responsible for a mild to moderate form of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in humans, Tula virus (TULV) with low pathogenicity, and non-pathogenic Prospect Hill virus (PHV)-with human and rodent host cell lines...

Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV) is endemic in Europe and can cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome ( nephropathia epidemica ). Disease features include fever, thrombocytopenia, and acute kidney injury (AKI). This retrospective cohort study of forty PUUV patients aims to characterize associations of serum immunological, hemostatic or kidney injury markers to disease severity. While interleukin-18 (IL-18) was significantly increased in severely thrombocytopenic patients (<100 × 109 platelets/L) compared to patients with higher platelet counts, RANTES was significantly decreased in these patients...

Given the difficulty of measuring pathogen transmission in wildlife, epidemiological studies frequently rely on cross-sectional seroprevalence. However, seropositivity indicates only exposure to a pathogen at an unknown time. By allowing to obtain repeated test results from individuals sampled multiple times over an extended period, longitudinal data help reduce this uncertainty. We used capture-mark-recapture data on bank vole (Myodes glareolus) individuals collected at four sites over ten years in northeastern France to investigate the impact of environmental variables on seroprevalence and incidence of Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV)...

BACKGROUND: Orthohantaviruses are rodent-borne emerging viruses that cause haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Eurasia and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in America. Transmission between humans have been reported and the case-fatality rate ranges from 0.4% to 40% depending on virus strain. There is no specific and efficient treatment for patients with severe HFRS. Here, we characterised a fatal case of HFRS and sequenced the causing Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV). METHODS: PUUV RNA and virus specific neutralising antibodies were quantified in plasma samples from the fatal case and other patients with non-fatal PUUV infection...

Hantaviruses are potentially fatal zoonotic pathogens of the family Hantaviridae. No human infection by the Hokkaido genotype of Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV-Hok) has been reported. However, other PUUV genotypes cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in humans. Autophagy is a highly conserved lysosomal degradation process in eukaryotic cells that affects the replication of various viruses. In this study, we examined the role of autophagy in PUUV-Hok replication. PUUV-Hok infection induced the expression of LC3-II, an autophagosome marker, and the nucleocapsid protein (NP) of PUUV-Hok was colocalized with punctate structures of LC3...

Nephropathia epidemica (NE), a mild form of haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), is an acute febrile illness caused by Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV). NE manifests typically with acute kidney injury (AKI), with a case fatality rate of about 0.1%. The treatment and management of hantavirus infections are mainly supportive, although neutralizing monoclonal antibodies and immune sera therapeutics are under investigation. In order to assess the potential use of antibody therapeutics in NE, we sought to determine the relationship between circulating PUUV neutralizing antibodies, PUUV nucleocapsid protein (N) IgG antibodies, and viral loads with markers of disease severity...

Pathogens might affect behavior of infected reservoir hosts and hence their trappability, which could bias population estimates of pathogen prevalence. In this study, we used snap-trapping data on Puumala orthohantavirus (PUUV)-infected ( n  = 1619) and noninfected ( n  = 6940) bank voles ( Myodes glareolus ) from five vole cycles, normally representing increase, peak, and decline phase, to evaluate if infection status affected trapping success. If PUUV infection, as previously suggested, increases activity and/or mobility, we would expect a higher proportion of infected than noninfected specimens in the first trapping night...

Haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is the most widespread natural-focal human disease in the Russian Federation. In this study, we report virological assessment of a fatal case of HFRS-PUUV (Puumala virus) in the Kursk Region. The infection caused severe multiorgan failure and the maximum viral load was detected in the tissue of the spleen. Viral sequences were obtained from the patient's autopsy material and lung tissues of bank voles captured in the region. These sequences formed a new clade in the PUUV phylogenetic tree, an outgroup to all known Russian (RUS) lineage sequences...