Discover the experts Virus that lives in monkeys africanus has the potential to infect humans and may lead to the next pandemic. They called for priority to be given to further studies of the arterial virus in monkeys and the development of antibody tests in the blood to detect the disease.
Scientists have warned of the epidemiological threat, noting that monkey hemorrhagic fever virus (SHFV), which is endemic in wild African primates, causes Ebola-like symptoms in macaques, including internal bleeding, and kills almost all the primates it infects.
No human cases have been detected so far, according to US researchers, but the virus is “prepared to spread.” They said that “the global health community can now avoid another pandemic” by developing tests and monitoring the virus.
Ebola virus
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder are sounding the alarm because of the “human compatibility of the virus.”
In a lab study, researchers found that the virus was able to attach to a human receptor easily and make copies of it.
Dr. Sarah Sawyer, from the University of Colorado Boulder and colleagues explained: “This animal virus has figured out how to get into human cells, reproduce, and escape some of the important immune mechanisms that we expect to protect us from an animal virus. This is very rare. And we should watch it.”
Monkey hemorrhagic fever (SHFV) virus causes fever, fluid retention in body tissues, loss of appetite and bleeding. The disease is often fatal within about two weeks.
It appears to attack immune cells in the same way as HIV, which originated in a species of chimpanzee in Africa.
“The parallels between this virus and the monkey viruses that led to the HIV pandemic are profound,” said author Professor Cody Warren.
The researchers focused their work on a family of viruses called arterioviruses that commonly circulate in pigs and horses, but have not been adequately studied in non-human primates. Especially on Monkey Hemorrhagic Fever Virus (SHFV), a type of arterial virus that causes a deadly disease similar to Ebola virus disease.
A large group of African monkeys carry large amounts of arterial viruses, often without symptoms.
Researchers have yet to determine the natural host of MHF virus.
According to the report, which was published on Friday in the scientific journal “Cell”, no human injuries have been detected so far.
According to the researchers, MHF virus has caused various fatal outbreaks in captive macaque colonies since the early 1960s.
Analysis of the virus revealed that the key to the biology of monkey arterial viruses is how they target a receptor molecule called “CD163” to cling to and invade monkey cells.
The team said they were surprised to discover in lab that the MHF virus was remarkably adept at stabilizing the human version of CD163.
Once attached to the virus, it was able to enter human cells and take advantage of its location to replicate itself quickly. The researchers also note that the MHF virus is able to attack immune cells and disrupt key defense mechanisms, allowing them to take long-term control over the body — just as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and its precursors, such as monkey immunodeficiency virus, do.
“The similarities between this virus and the monkey viruses that led to the HIV pandemic are profound,” said microbiologist Professor Warren.