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The name arenavirus comes from the Latin arenosus (sandy). Ribosomes are packaged within arenavirus virions and these are responsible for the “sandy” appearance of the particles. Arenavirus virions are enveloped with helical nucleocapsids and are pleomorphic, ranging in size from 100 to 130 nm in diameter. Structural proteins include a nucleocapsid protein (N), a matrix-like protein (Z), and two glycoproteins derived from a single precursor. Arenaviruses are segmented RNA viruses that replicate using an overall strategy common to negative-strand RNA viruses. However, both genome segments (large (L) and small (S)) are ambisense in their coding strategy. Rodents are natural hosts of many arenaviruses though some can infect humans through contact with infected rodents or inhalation of infectious urine or feces.

Lassa virus, the causative agent of Lassa fever, is a zoonotic pathogen causing annual outbreaks in West African countries. Human patients can develop lethal hemorrhagic fever in severe cases. Although Lassa virus is one of the most alarming pathogens from a public health perspective, there are few available countermeasures, such as antiviral drugs or vaccines. Moreover, the fact that animal models are not readily accessible and the fact that mostly laboratory viruses, which have been passaged many times after isolation, are used for studies further limits the successful development of countermeasures. In this study, we demonstrate that a human isolate of Lassa virus causes lethal infection uniformly in Hartley guinea pigs. This novel animal model of Lassa fever may contribute to Lassa fever research and the development of vaccines and therapeutics., Lassa virus (LASV), a member of the family Arenaviridae, is the causative agent of Lassa fever. Lassa virus is endemic in West African countries, such as Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, and causes outbreaks annually. Lassa fever onset begins with “flu-like” symptoms and may develop into lethal hemorrhagic disease in severe cases. Although Lassa virus is one of the most alarming pathogens from a public health perspective, there are few licensed vaccines or therapeutics against Lassa fever. The fact that animal models are limited and the fact that mostly laboratory-derived viruses are used for studies limit the successful development of countermeasures. In this study, we demonstrated that the LASV isolate LF2384-NS-DIA-1 (LF2384), which was directly isolated from a serum sample from a fatal human Lassa fever case in the 2012 Sierra Leone outbreak, causes uniformly lethal infection in outbred Hartley guinea pigs without virus-host adaptation. This is the first report of a clinically isolated strain of LASV causing lethal infection in outbred guinea pigs. This novel guinea pig model of Lassa fever may contribute to Lassa fever research and the development of vaccines and therapeutics. IMPORTANCE Lassa virus, the causative agent of Lassa fever, is a zoonotic pathogen causing annual outbreaks in West African countries. Human patients can develop lethal hemorrhagic fever in severe cases. Although Lassa virus is one of the most alarming pathogens from a public health perspective, there are few available countermeasures, such as antiviral drugs or vaccines. Moreover, the fact that animal models are not readily accessible and the fact that mostly laboratory viruses, which have been passaged many times after isolation, are used for studies further limits the successful development of countermeasures. In this study, we demonstrate that a human isolate of Lassa virus causes lethal infection uniformly in Hartley guinea pigs. This novel animal model of Lassa fever may contribute to Lassa fever research and the development of vaccines and therapeutics.

Members of the family Arenaviridae produce enveloped virions containing genomes consisting of two or three single-stranded RNA segments totalling about 10.5 kb. Arenaviruses can infect mammals, including humans and other primates, snakes, and fish. This is a summary of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) Report on the family Arenaviridae, which is available at www.ictv.global/report/arenaviridae.

This work was supported in part through Battelle Memorial Institute?s prime contract with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under Contract No. HHSN272200700016I (J.H.K.). This work was also funded in part by National Institutes of Health (NIH) contract HHSN272201000040I/HHSN27200004/D04 and grant R24AI120942 (R.B.T.) Rega Institute. Infectious Diseases unit. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service. US Horticultural Research Laboratory. Fort Pierce, FL, USA. Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology. D. I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology. Moscow, Russia. University of Ljubljana. Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine. Ljubljana, Slovenia. Mississippi State University. Department of Biological Sciences. Mississippi State, MS, USA. University of Texas Medical Branch. Galveston, TX, USA. Institute of Diagnostic Virology. Friedrich-Loefer-Institut. Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology. Viral Special Pathogens Branch. Atlanta, GA, USA. Colorado State University. Department of Microbiology. Immunology & Pathology, Arthropod-borne and Infectious Diseases Laboratory. Fort Collins, CO, USA. Columbia University. Center for Infection and Immunity. Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health. New York, NY, USA. University of California. Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Irvine, CA, USA. National Health Laboratory Service. Division of Virology. Bloemfontein. Republic of South Africa / University of the Free State. Division of Virology. Bloemfontein, Republic of South Africa. Colorado State University. Department of Microbiology. Immunology & Pathology, Arthropod-borne and Infectious Diseases Laboratory. Fort Collins, CO, USA. Unit? des Virus Emergents (Aix-Marseille Univ?IRD 190? 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School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences. Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre. Brisbane, Australia. Public Health England. Salisbury, UK. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fort Collins, USA. Indian Agricultural Research Institute. Division of Plant Pathology. New Delhi, India. Seoul National University. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Center for Fungal Pathogenesis. Seoul, Korea. Humboldt-University Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health. corporate member of Free University Berlin. Institute of Virology. Charit?-Universit?tsmedizin Berlin. Berlin, Germany / German Centre for Infection Research. Berlin, Germany. Humboldt-University Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health. corporate member of Free University Berlin. Institute of Virology. Charit?-Universit?tsmedizin Berlin. Berlin, Germany / Slovak Academy of Sciences. Biomedical Research Center. Bratislava, Slovakia. Karolinska University Hospital. 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Biocentre Klein Flottbek. Hamburg, Germany. Washington State University. Irrigated Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Department of Plant Pathology. Prosser, USA. Minist?rio da Sa?de. Secretaria de Vigil?ncia em Sa?de. Instituto Evandro Chagas. Centro de Inova??es Tecnol?gicas. Ananindeua, PA, Brasil. United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Fort Detrick, Frederick, USA. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. National Reference Centre for Arboviruses and Haemorrhagic Fever Viruses. Department of Microbiology, Medical School. Thessaloniki, Greece. National Health Laboratory Service. National Institute for Communicable Diseases. Centre for Emerging Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases. Sandringham, South Africa / University of Pretoria. Centre for Viral Zoonoses, Faculty of Health Sciences. Department of Medical Virology. Pretoria South Africa. University of Texas Medical Branch. Galveston, TX, USA. University of Helsinki. Department of Virology. 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Bioinformatics Scientific Institute IRCCS E. MEDEA. Bosisio Parini, Italy. Korea University. College of Medicine. Department of Microbiology. Seoul. Republic of Korea. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology. Viral Special Pathogens Branch. Atlanta, GA, USA. Colorado State University. Immunology and Pathology. Department of Microbiology. Fort Collins, USA. University of Texas Medical Branch. Galveston, TX, USA. CNR. Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection. Torino, Italy. Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University. Institute of Plant Virology. Fujian Province Key Laboratory of Plant Virology. Fuzhou, China. North Carolina State University. Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology. Raleigh, USA. National Chung Hsing University. Department of Plant Pathology. Taichung, Taiwan. Universidade Federal de Vi?osa. Departamento de Fitopatologia/BIOAGRO. Vi?osa, MG, Brazil. Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention. Beijing, China / Fudan University. Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center & Institutes of Biomedical Sciences. Shanghai, China. Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Institute of Plant Protection. State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests. Beijing, China. National Institutes of Health (NIH). National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Division of Clinical Research (DCR). Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick (IRF-Frederick). Frederick, USA. In October 2018, the order Bunyavirales was amended by inclusion of the family Arenaviridae, abolishment of three families, creation of three new families, 19 new genera, and 14 new species, and renaming of three genera and 22 species. This article presents the updated taxonomy of the order Bunyavirales as now accepted by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).

The family Arenaviridae consists of numerous enveloped RNA viruses with ambisense coding strategies. Eight arenaviruses, including Lassa virus, are known to cause severe and fatal viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) in humans, yet vaccines and treatments for disease caused by arenaviruses are very limited. In this study, we screened a natural product library consisting of 131 compounds and identified tangeretin, a polymethoxylated flavone widely present in citrus fruit peels, as a Lassa virus entry inhibitor that blocks viral fusion. Further analyses demonstrated the efficacy of tangeretin against seven other VHF-causing arenaviruses, suggesting that this compound, which has a history of medical usage, could be used to develop an effective therapeutic to treat infection and disease caused by Lassa virus and related viruses.

Recently, novel arenaviruses were found in snakes with boid inclusion body disease (BIBD); these form the new genus Reptarenavirus within the family Arenaviridae . We used next-generation sequencing and de novo sequence assembly to investigate reptarenavirus isolates from our previous study. Four of the six isolates and all of the samples from snakes with BIBD contained at least two reptarenavirus species. The viruses sequenced comprise four novel reptarenavirus species and a representative of a new arenavirus genus.

The family Arenaviridae consists of a unique genus (Arenavirus) that currently comprises 22 viral species, as recognized by the International Committee for Taxonomy of Viruses. Seven newly discovered represent putative new species. Here, our aims were to provide the most comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of members and putative members of the family Arenaviridae to date, and to investigate the genetic diversity observed within and between recognized species of New world arenaviruses to determine whether the genetic criteria previously proposed to define arenavirus species for Old world arenaviruses should be retained or are more widely applicable to the whole genus.

In 2018, the family Arenaviridae was expanded by inclusion of 1 new genus and 5 novel species. At the same time, the recently established order Bunyavirales was expanded by 3 species. This article presents the updated taxonomy of the family Arenaviridae and the order Bunyavirales as now accepted by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) and summarizes additional taxonomic proposals that may affect the order in the near future., La lista completa de autores que integran el documento puede consultarse en el archivo., Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Instituto de Biotecnologia y Biologia Molecular