Novel amino acid mutations suggest local monkeypox transmission in Guangzhou, China

Reviewed by Danielle Ellis, B.Sc.Sep 15 2023

The monkeypox (mpox) virus has caused worldwide transmission since its initial report in England in early May 2022. Available data from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that Europe and the Americas experienced a huge wave of mpox virus infection. Now the number of infected cases is on the rise in Asia. Several sporadic infections have been reported in China. In this study, the authors of this article obtained high-quality whole viral genomic sequences using a mpox virus-specific amplicon-based sequencing strategy.

The analysis of the phylogenomic characteristics indicated that all eight mpox virus sequences from Guangzhou belonged to the clade IIb lineage B.1.3 cluster. However, the exact origins where the virus was imported could not be located, based on all the available mpox virus sequences from the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) database (https://gisaid.org/), except for their closest sequence similarity to that was reported from Japan. Novel amino acid mutations were found among the eight cases, suggesting that a local transmission may have occurred in Guangzhou, China.

Summary

• A Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the early eight cases of mpox infection in Guangzhou shared a single origin.
• The Guangzhou local mpox had acquired new mutations.