Study shows: monkeypox has mutated surprisingly strongly - first details known

Created: 06/25/2022, 06:39 am

By: Jennifer Lanzinger

Around 5,000 people worldwide have been infected with monkeypox so far, and a study is now providing new details.

The pathogen has therefore mutated surprisingly strongly.

Berlin/Lisbon – For more than two years, the corona virus has been causing high numbers of infections in Germany and the world, and the values ​​​​are currently rising again significantly.

At the same time, the discovery of monkeypox recently caused a stir, with men in particular being affected by the pathogen.

A study now shows that the pathogen has mutated surprisingly strongly.

Study shows: monkeypox has mutated surprisingly strongly - first details known

Compared to related viruses from 2018 and 2019, there are around 50 differences in the genome, writes a team from Portugal in the journal

.

Accordingly, the causative agent of the current outbreak of monkeypox has mutated surprisingly strongly.

This is far more than would have been expected based on previous estimates for this type of pathogen: roughly 6 to 12 times more.

The divergent branch could be a sign of accelerated evolution.

The work is mainly based on analyzes of Portuguese cases.

So far, experts had spoken of a generally rather slow development with regard to this type of virus - especially compared to the very numerous mutations of Sars-CoV-2.

Monkeypox mutated surprisingly strongly - mutations have a very specific pattern

The authors of the study suspect one or more imports from a country in which the virus is permanently present behind the current outbreak.

Superspreader events and international travel then seemed to have promoted further spread.

"Our data provide additional evidence of ongoing viral evolution and possible adaptation to humans," writes the team led by João Paulo Gomes from the National Institute of Health Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA) in Lisbon.

The expert on the evolution of viruses, Richard Neher (Basel), explained that the mutation rate was “indeed surprisingly high”.

The mutations would have a very specific pattern.

The authors suspected that enzymes of the human immune system are responsible for these changes in the genome.

“Even within the current outbreak, we are seeing this accelerated mutation.

The rate is roughly one mutation per genome per month - with some uncertainty," said Neher.

Sars-CoV-2 has about two mutations per genome per month, but this genome is about seven times smaller.

However, such comparisons of mutation rates are not very meaningful and say little about the relative evolutionary mutability of the viruses.

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Monkeypox: Most mutations "probably have no dramatic effects"

When asked whether the mutations made the current spread possible in the first place, the scientist explained that, to his knowledge, there were no indications of this, but it could not be ruled out.

Most of the mutations would "probably have no dramatic effects".

As Neher describes, many laboratories have now analyzed the genome of monkeypox cases - most of these sequences belonged to the cluster described in the study.

Around 5,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in humans worldwide this year.

In more than 40 countries outside of Africa, where the disease was practically unknown until May, there were 3,308 cases, according to data from the US health authority CDC as of Wednesday shortly before midnight CEST.