Skip to Main content Skip to Navigation
Journal articles

Identification of Umbre Orthobunyavirus as a Novel Zoonotic Virus Responsible for Lethal Encephalitis in 2 French Patients With Hypogammaglobulinemia

Philippe Perot 1 Franck Bielle 2, 3 Thomas Bigot 4 Vincent Foulongne 5, 6 Karine Bolloré 5, 6 Delphine Chrétien 1 Patricia Gil 7, 8 Serafin Gutierrez 7, 8 Grégory L’ambert 9 Karima Mokhtari 2, 3 Jan Hellert 10 Marie Flamand 10 Carole Tamietti 10 Muriel Coulpier 11 Anne Huard de Verneuil 11 Sarah Temmam 1 Thérèse Couderc 12 Edouard de Sousa Cunha 2 Susana Boluda 2, 3, 13, 14 Isabelle Plu 2, 3, 13, 14 Marie Bernadette Delisle 15 Fabrice Bonneville 15, 16 David Brassat 17, 18 Claire Fieschi 19 Marion Malphettes 19 Charles Duyckaerts 3, 2 Bertrand Mathon 3, 20 Sophie Demeret 21 Danielle Seilhean 2, 3, 13, 14 Marc Eloit 1, 22, *
* Corresponding author
1 Découverte de pathogènes – Pathogen discovery
2 Laboratoire de Neuropathologie Raymond Escourolle
3 ICM - Institut du Cerveau et de la Moëlle Epinière = Brain and Spine Institute
4 Hub Bioinformatique et Biostatistique - Bioinformatics and Biostatistics HUB
5 Etablissement français du don du sang [Montpellier]
6 PCCEI - Pathogenesis and Control of Chronic and Emerging Infections
UA - Université des Antilles, Etablissement français du don du sang [Montpellier], UM - Université de Montpellier, INSERM - Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale : U 1058
7 UMR ASTRE - Animal, Santé, Territoires, Risques et Ecosystèmes
8 Cirad-BIOS - Département Systèmes Biologiques
9 EID - Entente Interdépartementale pour la démoustication du littoral méditerranéen
10 Virologie Structurale - Structural Virology
11 VIRO - Virologie UMR1161
12 Biologie des Infections - Biology of Infection
13 Centre national de référence des Agents Transmissibles Non Conventionnels
14 Santé publique France - French National Public Health Agency [Saint-Maurice, France]
15 CHU Toulouse [Toulouse]
16 ToNIC - Toulouse Neuro Imaging Center
17 CPTP - Centre de Physiopathologie Toulouse Purpan
18 Pôle neurosciences [Hôpital de Purpan - Toulouse]
19 Service d'Immunopathologie [Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris]
20 CHU Charles Foix [AP-HP]
21 CIC Neurosciences - Centre d'investigation clinique Neurosciences [CHU Pitié Salpêtrière]
22 ENVA - École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort
Abstract : Background: Human encephalitis represents a medical challenge from a diagnostic and therapeutic point of view. We investigated the cause of 2 fatal cases of encephalitis of unknown origin in immunocompromised patients. Methods: Untargeted metatranscriptomics was applied on the brain tissue of 2 patients to search for pathogens (viruses, bacteria, fungi, or protozoans) without a prior hypothesis. Results: Umbre arbovirus, an orthobunyavirus never previously identified in humans, was found in 2 patients. In situ hybridization and reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) showed that Umbre virus infected neurons and replicated at high titers. The virus was not detected in cerebrospinal fluid by RT-qPCR. Viral sequences related to Koongol virus, another orthobunyavirus close to Umbre virus, were found in Culex pipiens mosquitoes captured in the south of France where the patients had spent some time before the onset of symptoms, demonstrating the presence of the same clade of arboviruses in Europe and their potential public health impact. A serological survey conducted in the same area did not identify individuals positive for Umbre virus. The absence of seropositivity in the population may not reflect the actual risk of disease transmission in immunocompromised individuals. Conclusions: Umbre arbovirus can cause encephalitis in immunocompromised humans and is present in Europe.
Keywords : Umbre virus encephalitis metatranscriptomics next-generation sequencing orthobunyavirus
Document type :
Journal articles
Complete list of metadata

Cited literature [37 references]  Display  Hide  Download
https://hal-pasteur.archives-ouvertes.fr/pasteur-02863210
Contributor : Philippe Pérot Connect in order to contact the contributor
Submitted on : Wednesday, June 10, 2020 - 8:26:06 AM
Last modification on : Friday, December 3, 2021 - 12:14:00 PM

File

Vignette du document
Umbre_Manuscript_HAL_full.pdf
Files produced by the author(s)

Licence

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Identifiers

Collections

PASTEUR | UNIV-TLSE3 | ANSES | INVS | CIRAD | ICM | UNIV-MONTPELLIER | SORBONNE-UNIVERSITE | SU-MEDECINE | CNRS | INRAE | UNIV-PARIS | INSERM | INRAEOCCITANIEMONTPELLIER | ANR | SU-TI | INFINITY | UNIV-AG | PCCI

Citation

Philippe Perot, Franck Bielle, Thomas Bigot, Vincent Foulongne, Karine Bolloré, et al.. Identification of Umbre Orthobunyavirus as a Novel Zoonotic Virus Responsible for Lethal Encephalitis in 2 French Patients With Hypogammaglobulinemia. Clinical Infectious Diseases, Oxford University Press (OUP), 2021, 72 (10), pp.1701-1708. ⟨10.1093/cid/ciaa308⟩. ⟨pasteur-02863210⟩

Export

BibTeX TEI DC DCterms EndNote

Share

Metrics

Les métriques sont temporairement indisponibles