Analysis of an echovirus 18 outbreak in Thuringia, Germany: insights into the molecular epidemiology and evolution of several enterovirus species B members

• Published in: Medical microbiology and immunology Vol. 205; no. 5; pp. 471 - 483
• Main Authors: Krumbholz, Andi, Egerer, Renate, Braun, Heike, Schmidtke, Michaela, Rimek, Dagmar, Kroh, Claudia, Hennig, Bert, Groth, Marco, Sauerbrei, Andreas, Zell, Roland
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-10-2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aseptic meningitis; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cerebrospinal fluid; Cerebrospinal Fluid - virology; Child; Child, Preschool; coxsackievirus B5; Disease Outbreaks; DNA sequencing; Echovirus; Echovirus Infections - epidemiology; Enterovirus; Enterovirus B, Human - classification; Enterovirus B, Human - genetics; Enterovirus B, Human - isolation & purification; Enteroviruses; Epidemiology; Evolution, Molecular; Feces - virology; Female; Genetic recombination; Genome, Viral; Genomes; Genotype; Germany - epidemiology; Humans; Immunology; Male; Medical Microbiology; Meningitis; Meningitis, Aseptic - epidemiology; Molecular Epidemiology; Molecular Typing; Original Investigation; Outbreaks; Picornaviridae; Recombination; Recombination, Genetic; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA, Viral - cerebrospinal fluid; RNA, Viral - genetics; RNA, Viral - isolation & purification; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Virology; Viruses; Young Adult; RNA-sequencing; Lineages; Recombination; Molecular epidemiology; Recogroups; Meningitis; Enterovirus; Germany
• ISSN: 0300-8584; 1432-1831
• DOI: 10.1007/s00430-016-0464-z

In October and November 2010, six children and one woman were presented with symptoms of aseptic meningitis in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. Enterovirus RNA was detected in the cerebrospinal fluid of all patients by RT-PCR, and preliminary molecular typing revealed echovirus 18 (E-18) as causative agent. Virus isolates were obtained from stool samples of three patients and several contact persons. Again, most isolates were typed as E-18. In addition, coxsackievirus B5 (CV-B5) and echovirus 25 (E-25) were found to co-circulate. As only few complete E-18 sequences are available in GenBank, the entire genomes of these isolates were determined using direct RNA-sequencing technology. We did not find evidence for recombination between E-18, E-25 or CV-B5 during the outbreak. Viral protein 1 gene sequences and the cognate 3D polymerase gene sequences of each isolate and GenBank sequences were analysed in order to define type-specific recombination groups (recogroups).