A new virus discovered by the Pasteur Institute undermines the scientific community. Detected on a patient suffering from hepatitis, it would attack the liver. What do we know today about its effects and its transmission?
Many viruses are rife in France, as each beginning of the year, we have seen the return of the gastroenteritis epidemic as well as a resurgence of the flu. But it is not these viruses that we are going to talk to you about, not even the famous Covid-19 which has been raging for almost three years now. Of the French scientists from the Institut Pasteur discovered a new virus renamed the Human Circovirus 1 or HCirV-1 on a patient with hepatitis.
But why is this virus so talked about and why is the scientific community in turmoil? Being part of the family of circoviruses discovered in 1974 on animal speciesthis virus has a surprising specificity: it is the first pathogenic circovirus in humans ! The information was relayed in a study published in the magazine Emerging Infectious Diseases. Indeed, French researchers from all walks of life, Institut Pasteur, Necker-Enfants Malade Hospital, Imagine Institute of INSERM, Paris-Cité University and finally the National Veterinary School of Alfort have confirmed the presence of HCirV-1 in a sixty-year-old woman suffering from chronic liver inflammation.
What’s next after this ad
A virus that causes inflammation of the liver
The patient, followed as part of a control following two transplants, of the heart and the lungs, had suffered from an unexplained chronic inflammation of the liver since 2021. After continuing their research, the scientists confirmed her contamination: ” The involvement of HCirV-1 in hepatitis was then demonstrated through the analysis of samples from the patient taken in previous years for her follow-up as part of her transplants. ». A sequencing which made it possible to demonstrate that the virus present was nevertheless “undetectable in blood samples from 2017 to 2019” before reaching a peak in September 2021.
It was during this period that the virus presented “ a role in liver damage ». Fortunately for the sexagenarian, the Institut Pasteur reveals that the consequences on the liver have been tempered, only 2-3% of liver cells were affected. A disease treated through a antiviral treatment which helped restore a normal level of liver enzymes for this 61-year-old woman.