Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 108, Issue 28, Pages 11608-11613Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1101794108
Keywords
flavivirus; zoonosis
Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health [AI090196, AI079231, AI57158, AI070411, AI090055, AI072613, EY017404]
- Department of Defense
- US Department of Agriculture [58-1275-7-370]
- Greenberg Medical Research Institute
- Starr Foundation
- German Academy of Sciences [LPDS-2009-9]
- International Human Frontier Science Program Organization [LT000048/2009-L]
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An estimated 3% of the world's population is chronically infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). Although HCV was discovered more than 20 y ago, its origin remains obscure largely because no closely related animal virus homolog has been identified; furthermore, efforts to understand HCV pathogenesis have been hampered by the absence of animal models other than chimpanzees for human disease. Here we report the identification in domestic dogs of a nonprimate hepacivirus. Comparative phylogenetic analysis of the canine hepacivirus (CHV) confirmed it to be the most genetically similar animal virus homolog of HCV. Bayesian Markov chains Monte Carlo and associated time to most recent common ancestor analyses suggest a mean recent divergence time of CHV and HCV clades within the past 500-1,000 y, well after the domestication of canines. The discovery of CHV may provide new insights into the origin and evolution of HCV and a tractable model system with which to probe the pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment of diseases caused by hepacivirus infection.
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