The transmission of hepadnaviruses between their natural hosts, humans, non-human primates, and birds, including intra-species host transmission and cross-species transmission, is a topic of study in virology.
Hepadnaviruses are a family of viruses that can cause liver infections in humans and animals. They are Group VII viruses that possess double-stranded DNA genomes and replicate using reverse transcriptase. This unique replication strategy, combined with their extremely small genomes and a very narrow host and tissue tropism, has distinguished them enough to be classified in the family Hepadnaviridae. There are two recognized genera: Orthohepadnavirus, type species: hepatitis B virus (HBV) Avihepadnavirus, type species: duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV)
Structure
With the example of human HBV: the particular feature of the HBV structure is the presence of three different forms in the plasma of infected patients: Dane particle (diameter ≈ 42 nm): the complete virion, which is infectious and consists of an enveloped icosahedral nucleocapsid containing the viral genome, consisting of core protein and protecting the partially double-stranded DNA genome, bounding with DNA polymerase. The capsid is enveloped by a lipid bilayer that contains three forms of envelope proteins: small (S) proteins, intermediated (M) proteins, and large (L) proteins, and these proteins have different surface antigenes domains which contribute the viral infectivity: L protein (Pre S1, Pre S2, S), M protein (Pre S2, S), S protein (S). In figure 1, showing the simplified structure of HBV particles. Subviral sphere particles (diameter ≈ 22 nm), these smaller, non-infectious and are the most abundant particle in the blood of an infected one. They are assumed to have the ability of absorbing virus-neutralizing antibodies to facilitate the virus spread and maintenance in the host.Visualization and Characterization Of hbv-Receptor Interactions, by Anja. Meier, Faculty of Life Sciences (2010), volume 92, pages 3-6. Filaments (diameter ≈ 22 nm, length: 50 nm-70 nm), which are less known about, but they are actually consisted of many subviral sphere particles.
Genome
As with the example of HBV, showing in figure 2, four open reading frames are encoded (ORFs), all ORFs are in the same direction, defining the minus- and plus-strands. And the virus has four known genes, which encode the core protein, the virus polymerase, surface antigens (preS1, preS2, and S) and the X protein. The minus-strand DNA is complete and spans the entire genome, while the plus strand spans only about two-thirds of the genome length and have variable 3' ends. But for the avihepadnaviruses they normally extend plus-strands almost all the way to the modified 5' end. The minus-strand is linked to the viral reverse transcriptase and can encode all the known viral proteins, but the plus-strain cannot encode viral proteins.
Replication
With the example of HBV: the mechanisms of infecting hepatocytes are still not well understood, but among the studies, it was revealed that the PreS1 domain of the L protein, plays a critical role in the infection, thus exhibiting different host specificity between different hepadnaviruses. Figure show the general process of the HBV infecting host cell: attachment-entry-uncoating-replicate-assembly-release. About the viral entry, several proteins have been identified as possible virus receptors, and studies show that the binding of virion with receptors can be neutralized by anti-PreS1 antibodies.
The replication is the unique reverse transcriptase strategy: after uncoating, nucleocapsids are transported to the host cell nucleus, the virion DNA will be converted into covalently closed circular (CCC) DNA, the template for the transcription of the viral RNAs. Then undergoes transcription by the host cell RNA polymerase and the transcript is translated by host cell ribosomes; the high capacity of this replicating part contributes many errors which may help the virus adapt to the host.
New virus particles are formed, which acquire lipid from the endoplasmic reticulum of the host cell, and the genome is packaged within these particles, which then bud off from the cell; and some part of the new genome may return to the host cell nucleus for replication more genomes.
Phylogenetic tree
All the members of family hepadnaviridae share remarkable similarities in the genome organization and the replication strategies, however, it also shows the differences between different species, different genotypes, and different subtypes. The species specificity of them are determined, to some extent, at the level of virus entry, involving the PreS1 part of the large envelop protein L, which could be a reason for their specificity of host range.
Orthohepadnavirus
Viruses in this genus infect mammals, including human, apes, and rodents, with a narrow host range for each virus. The only known natural host for HBV is human, chimpanzees maybe infected experimentally. The orthohepadnaviruses have been divided into four distinct species, with HBV (human hepatitis B virus), WHV (woodchuck hepatitis virus), GSHV (ground squirrel hepatitis virus ), and WMHBV (woolly monkey hepatitis B virus) as the prototypes, based on the host range from a limited number of studies. From the result of molecular studies about the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assays, information about the number and geographic distribution of HBV genotypes and naturally occurring HBV mutants are gained. Eight HBV genotypes, A to H, have been identified in human and three closely related genotypes in apes are found, like gibbon, orangutan, chimpanzee; and he eight HBV genotypes have further diverged into at least 24 subgenotypes. With different analysis, including analysis of recombinants, the new Genotype J was provisionally assigned to be a genetic variant of HBV which is divergent from known human and ape genotypes, it was isolated from a Japanese patient.
Avihepadnavirus
Viruses in this genus exclusively infect birds; duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) and heron hepatitis B virus (HHBV) are the prototypes. Avihepadnaviruses have been detected in various duck species. As the same with the orthohepadnaviruses, avihepadnaviruses have a rather narrow host range, but its common host are ducks and geese, other possible hosts are herons, stocks and crane.
Differences between orthohepadnaviruses and avihepadnaviruses Low nucleotide sequence identity Differences in genome size, with genomes of orthohepadnaviruses generally larger than that of avihepadnaviruses Larger core proteins and no M surface for avihepadnaviurses; for orthohepadnaviruses, virions and filaments are enriched in L proteins and empty spheres consist predominantly of S proteins, while for duck hepatitis B virus, L and S proteins are distributed evenly between particle types Different host range restrictions (exclusively mammals for orthohepadnaviruses and exclusively birds for avihepadnaviruses) Different predominant transmission strategies (horizontal transmission for orthohepadnaviruses and vertical transmission for avihepadnaviruses)
Transmission
Orthohepadnaviruses
Within humans Horizontal Direct transmission person-to-person From healthcare workers Sexual contact Parenteral exposure Indirectly Unsafe medical practices Transfusions and haemodialysis Vertical Perinatal period Mother-to-offspring
Until 2000, there were more than 5.2 million cases of acute hepatitis B infection, and chronically infects approximately 5% of the human population. HBV is the most common one among those hepatitis viruses. It can cause chronic infection of liver in humans, which has become a global public health problem, since chronic hepatitis can cause cirrhosis or death from liver failure within certain times. And it is the major cause of HCC, contributing about 60-80% of the HCC cases around the world.
HBV is transmitted by parenteral contact with body fluids, such as blood and lymph; perinatal exposure of infants to carrier mothers. It is thought that mother-to-child perinatal transmission and the establishment of a lifelong highly infectious carrier state are responsible for the observed high rates of endemicity in high-prevalence regions such as South and East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In some cases breast milk of HBsAg positive mothers has been found to be positive for the virus, but there have not been any reports of HBV transmission through breast-feeding, even before the availability of hepatitis B vaccine for infants. Horizontal transmission: through directly contacts with infected body fluids, like blood and lymph, in ways like sexual contacts, from health-care workers, or parenteral exposure; indirectly through transfusions and haemodialysis, and contaminated medical practices. Vertical transmission: through perinatal periods, mother to child.
Cross-species transmission
Cross-species transmission has not been proven yet, but if this occurs, the chance to eradicate HBV infection by immunization will be diminished due to the difficulty in controlling of natural virus reservoir. And increasing human encroachment on rainforest habitat and fragmentation of declining populations increases the interactions and consequently the risks of disease transmission between wild primates and human populations. Transmission of mammalian hepadnavirus strains between cross-species primate hosts has been found in many cases, recombination of hepadnavirus strains from cross-species primate hosts, further demonstrates that primate associated HBV strains can indeed share hosts in nature, and cross-species transmission of primate-associated HBV strains provides the probability of interspecies recombination.
Within non-human mammals Gibbon HBV: Between gibbon and chimpanzee: the inoculation of GiHBV to a chimpanzee resulted in the acute hepatitis infection, and the virus isolated from the infected chimpanzee was GiHBV too. Woolly monkey HBV: Since black-handed spider monkey belongs to the same family and subfamily as the woolly monkey, it was chosen as a suitable small primate model to study WMHBV. The results showed that the black-handed spider monkey was susceptible to WMHBV, but developed only a subclinical infection. The susceptibility of chimpanzees to WMBHV was only limited. WHV: has only been detected in eastern woodchucks (Marmota monax), and does not infect related alpine marmosets. It infects woodchucks, but not other rodents like ground squirrels. But HDV with a WHV envelope (wHDV) has been shown to infect chimpanzees, and primary human hepatocytes. Vice versa a human enveloped hHDC could enter and (transiently) infect woodchuck hepatocytes in vivo without the need for a helper virus, but an infection of woodchucks or primary woodchuck hepatocytes with HBV has not been described. GSHV: infects woodchucks and ground squirrels, specifically some species of squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi and Spermophilus richardsonii) and the phylogenetically closely related chipmunks. GSHV runs a milder course when inoculated into woodchucks with the delayed onset of HCC.
Between humans and non-human mammals
Since the similarity between human and apes, and common ancestors human and apes shared long time ago, there are possibilities to happen transmission of HBVs among them.