Mystery hepatitis cases in kids linked to unexpected viral suspect

Starting in April, young children in the United Kingdom and other countries suffering from mysterious cases of acute liver inflammation began to attract scientific —and media—attention. Most would recover, some after liver transplants, but a few died. Physicians could find no evidence in the children of the standard viruses that caused their hepatitis, but researchers homed in on an unexpected suspect: adenovirus, a family of cold-causing viruses common in kids. Now, a sweeping genetic search of these patients instead implicates another virus,  one thought to be completely harmless. In two independent, preliminary studies, U.K. researchers found high levels of adeno-associated virus 2 (AAV2) in the blood or liver cells of all but one of 25 children with unexplained hepatitis. In a group of children without this condition, almost none had AAV2, even those with adenovirus. In addition, the young hepatitis patients with AAV2 were much likelier to have a genetic mutation that may make their immune systems overreact to a viral infection. The studies, one a preprint posted on 19 July and the other just submitted to medRxiv, offer new clues to the mystery pediatric hepatitis, which now numbers more than 1000 probable cases in 35 countries and at least 22 deaths. But outside researchers are cautious about the studies, especially because they haven’t yet been peer reviewed. “It’s intriguing for sure, but it’s a very small number of ca...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news