Detection and molecular characterization of human cosavirus in a pediatric patient with acute gastroenteritis, Japan

• Main Authors: Okitsu S., Khamrin P., Thongprachum A., Nishimura S., Kalesaran A.F.C., Takanashi S., Shimizu H., Hayakawa S., Mizuguchi M., Ushijima H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2014
• Online Access: http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84907693118&partnerID=40&md5=0da08282610ab95fe669b57b4306b992; http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/handle/6653943832/37612
• Institution: Chiang Mai University

Human cosavirus (HCoSV) is a genus recently identified in the family Picornaviridae, which includes important pathogens in human health. The pathogenicity of HCoSV remains unclear. This study reports that an HCoSV strain, 10928/2012/JPN, was identified and collected from the stool sample of a child with acute gastroenteritis in Japan, with the detection rate of 0.16%. The patient was not co-infected with other common diarrhea-causal viruses, suggesting HCoSV as a causal pathogen in this pediatric patient. Phylogenetic and sequence analyses exhibited that the virus strain was classified as a new genotype in HCoSV A species, and this study is first to detect HCoSV in a clinical specimen collected in Japan. These results showed that surveillance of HCoSV is important for detecting viral agents in children with diarrhea, despite being the low detection rate.