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Ljungan virus is a recently described picornavirus of bank voles which may be comprised of two or more serotypes. It belongs to the species Ljungan virus in the genus Parechovirus, family Picornaviridae. The virus was originally isolated in the Ljungan Valley in Medelpad county of Sweden from the most abundant small rodent in this area, the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus). Since then additional isolates have been discovered in Sweden, Denmark and the USA. The Ljungan virus causes diabetes, neurological disease, myocarditis and disease and deaths in pregnant laboratory mice and their offspring. The possibility that this virus causes the same diseases in wild small rodents such as voles and lemmings as well as in humans is presently investigated. In the April 19th 2007 issue of the journal Birth Defects Research they found the virus in 40% of the stillborns they autopsied but not in any of the tissue from normal pregnancies. Geneticist William Klitz, the lead co-researcher, also speculated that it may play a role in pre-eclampsia.
[edit] References
- Joki-Korpela P, Hyypiä T (2001). "Parechoviruses, a novel group of human picornaviruses". Ann. Med. 33 (7): 466–71. PMID 11680794.
- Niklasson B, Samsioe A, Papadogiannakis N, Kawecki A, Hörnfeldt B, Saade GR, Klitz W (2007). "Association of zoonotic Ljungan virus with intrauterine fetal deaths". Birth Defects Res. Part A Clin. Mol. Teratol. 79 (6): 488–93. doi:10.1002/bdra.20359. PMID 17335057.
