Relationships and host range of human, canine, simian and porcine isolates of simian virus 5 (parainfluenza virus 5)

Sequence comparison of the V/P and F genes of 13 human, canine, porcine and simian isolates of simian virus 5 (SV5) revealed a surprising lack of sequence variation at both the nucleotide and amino acid levels (0-3%), even though the viruses were isolated over 30 years and originated from countries around the world. Furthermore, there were no clear distinguishing amino acid or nucleotide differences among the isolates that correlated completely with the species from which they were isolated. In addition, there was no evidence that the ability of the viruses to block interferon signalling by targeting STAT1 for degradation was confined to the species from which they were isolated. All isolates had an extended cytoplasmic tail in the F protein, compared with the original W3A and WR monkey isolates. Sequence analysis of viruses that were derived from human bone-marrow cells isolated in London in the 1980s revealed that, whilst they were related more closely to one another than to the other isolates, they all had identifying differences, suggesting that they were independent isolates. These results therefore support previous data suggesting that SV5 can infect humans persistently, although the relationship of SV5 to any human disease remains highly contentious. Given that SV5 has been isolated on multiple occasions from different species, it is proposed that the term simian virus 5 is inappropriate and suggested that the virus should be renamed parainfluenza. virus 5.