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Redeemer’s University ACEGID Shows Lassa Virus Has Nigerian Origin by ProudOlodo: 7:06pm On Nov 20, 2015 |
Leading an international team of Scientists in Nigeria, West Africa and North America, Professor Christian Happi of the Department of Biological Sciences and Director of the World Bank funded African Center of Excellence for Genomics of infectious Diseases (ACEGID) at Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria, has published new findings showing the ancient roots of the deadly Lassa virus, a relative of Ebola virus, and how Lassa virus has changed over time. The new study “Clinical sequencing uncovers origins and evolution of Lassa virus” was published on Thursday August 13, 2015 in the prestigious scientific Journal Cell. In the new study, Professor Happi’s led team - which included Professors Pardis Sabeti and Joshua Levin of Harvard University and the Broad Institute, Robert F. Garry of Tulane University, as senior authors— used a technique called next-generation sequencing to sequence and analyze the genomes of 196 Lassa virus samples taken from human patients and wild Mastomys natalensis (rats) in Nigeria and Sierra Leone. They used Illumina sequencing to assemble 183 LASV genomes from clinical samples collected in Sierra Leone and Nigeria, together with 2 LASV genomes from laboratory isolates and 11 LASV genomes from field samples of its rodent reservoir, Mastomys natalensis. “This is the largest catalog of Lassa fever virus sequences ever generated in the world, and in the history of virology and genomics.” said Professor Christian Happi, a senior and corresponding authors of the publication. The genomic and molecular clocking data showed that Lassa virus originated from present day Nigeria about 1,060 years ago. This surprised the team of researchers, as Lassa fever was first described in Nigeria in 1969. “Although we were surprised, the data has led us to the discovery that Lassa fever virus is a very ancient virus with roots in Nigeria” said Happi. “These findings also support our previous demonstration that the Yoruba race of Nigeria has been under natural selection to evolve resistance to the virus” added the professor of molecular biology and genomics, Christian Happi. The researchers found that the virus spread out of Nigeria about 400 years ago and over the past couple of hundred years moved into Guinea (220 years ago), Liberia (180 years ago) and Sierra Leone (150 years ago)—the same part of the world where the largest outbreak of Ebola virus has been raging since 2013. As Lassa virus spread, the virus mutated and seemed to better adapt to mammalian hosts. “This ground breaking research has now given us and the scientific community a better insight into how the Lassa virus is evolving. The findings are certainly very critical for development of new therapies and vaccines against Lassa fever” said Professor Happi... Details at http://acegid.org/index.php?active=page&pgcat=view&newscid=22&catid=1 |
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