Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

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.

Original publication

DOI

10.1073/pnas.1101794108

Type

Journal article

Journal

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

Publication Date

12/07/2011

Volume

108

Pages

11608 - 11613

Keywords

Adenoviruses, Canine, Amino Acid Sequence, Animals, Base Sequence, Conserved Sequence, Dogs, Evolution, Molecular, Genome, Viral, Hepacivirus, Hepatitis, Infectious Canine, Humans, Molecular Sequence Data, Nucleic Acid Conformation, Phylogeny, RNA, Viral, Sequence Homology, Amino Acid, Species Specificity, Time Factors, Viral Envelope Proteins, Zoonoses