Human adenoviruses: A suspect behind the outbreak of acute hepatitis in children amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Hongyun Wang; Shimin Yang; Jiejie Liu; Zhiying Fu; Yingle Liu; Li Zhou; Haitao Guo; Ke Lan; Yu Chen

doi:10.1016/j.cellin.2022.100043

Human adenoviruses: A suspect behind the outbreak of acute hepatitis in children amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Cell Insight. 2022 Jun 11;1(4):100043. doi: 10.1016/j.cellin.2022.100043. eCollection 2022 Aug.

Authors

Hongyun Wang¹, Shimin Yang¹, Jiejie Liu¹, Zhiying Fu¹, Yingle Liu¹, Li Zhou¹, Haitao Guo², Ke Lan^{1

3}, Yu Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Virology, Modern Virology Research Center, Institute for Vaccine Research, RNA Institute, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
² Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Cancer Virology Program, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA.
³ Department of Infectious Diseases, Frontier Science Center for Immunology and Metabolism, Medical Research Institute, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

As of 10 May 2022, at least 450 cases of pediatric patients with acute hepatitis of unknown cause have been reported worldwide. Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) have been detected in at least 74 cases, including the F type HAdV41 in 18 cases, which indicates that adenoviruses may be associated with this mysterious childhood hepatitis, although other infectious agents or environmental factors cannot be excluded. In this review, we provide a brief introduction of the basic features of HAdVs and describe diseases caused by different HAdVs in humans, aiming to help understand the biology and potential risk of HAdVs and cope with the outbreak of acute child hepatitis.

Keywords: Acute hepatitis; HAdV41; Human adenoviruses; Pathogenesis.

Publication types

Review