Molecular biology of hantavirus infection
Christina Spiropoulou
from: Bunyaviridae: Molecular and Cellular Biology (Edited by: Alexander Plyusnin and Richard M. Elliott). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2011)
Abstract
Hantaviruses are mainly rodent-borne human pathogens with worldwide distribution and mortality rates among infected individuals of up to 40%. Members of the Hantavirus genus can be broadly divided into the Old World hantaviruses, which cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS), and the New World hantaviruses, which cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). The virus life cycle with few exceptions is very similar to that of other members of the Bunyaviridae family. What is really unique to hantaviruses is the unusual mechanisms by which they cause severe disease in humans and establish persistence in their rodent reservoir hosts. In this chapter, features of the hantavirus life cycle and the virus host cell interaction are highlighted in an attempt to understand what makes hantaviruses among the most important human pathogens of the family Bunyaviridae read more ...
