Newly emerging C group enteroviruses may elude diagnosis due to a divergent 5′-UTR

Abstract

Human enterovirus (HEV) 105 was first reported in 2012 in children from Peru and Congo. We report on the identification of a novel HEV-C105 strain in a pediatric patient in Cyprus with an upper respiratory tract infection. Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis of 5'-UTRs of all known HEVs revealed that our isolate belongs to a group of recently identified HEV-C viruses exhibiting a 5'-UTR distinct from all other previously known enteroviruses. This has important implications for diagnosis, as this region is the primary target for diagnostic assays. Increased awareness in laboratories may thus increase the rate of detection of enteroviruses belonging to this subspecies, or lead to the discovery of further genotypes.