Prevalence and genetic characteristics of Saffold cardiovirus in China from 2009 to 2012

Zhang, Xiao-Ai; Lu, Qing-Bin; Wo, Ying; Zhao, Jin; Huang, Dou-Dou; Guo, Chen-Tao; Xu, Hong-Mei; Liu, En-Mei; Liu, Wei; Cao, Wu-Chun

Pediatric encephalitis caused by viral infection has always been of great public health concern worldwide because of its high morbidity and mortality. The common agents of viral encephalitis include herpes simplex virus 1, varicella zoster virus, EV, Epstein-Barr virus, human herpesvirus 6, and measles virus 35, 36 . However, an etiological diagnosis was reached in less than 50% of the cases despite the use of modern microbiological and radiological methods 35, 37 . The list of uncommonly observed etiological agents for pediatric encephalitis remained far from complete. Animal experiments have suggested showed that both SAFV-2 and SAFV-3 can infect the heart and the central nervous system of 129/Sv mice 39 . Furthermore, they found that SAFV-3 was more neurotropic than SAFV-2, and intracerebral inoculationof SAFV-3 into FVB/n mice caused acute encephalitis 39 . In the current study, the existence of SAFV-2 and SAFV-3 was observed in the patients with HFMD-associated encephalitis. The present results, together with those of the earlier studies, indicate that SAFV-2 and SAFV-3 might play a role in the pathogenesis of viral encephalitis. However, these results warrant further confirmation by independent studies.