病毒是地球上最丰富的生物体，并能导致慢性感染和全球疾病流行。然而，病毒感染人类的程度仍然是未知的。一些新发现的病毒是由于一种新疾病的突然出现而被识别出来的，例如的非典，甚至80年代初的HIV/AIDS。
然而，新技术现在使科学家能够通过直接研究与人类有关的遗传物质中的RNA或DNA序列来识别病毒，从而能够检测称为病毒组的整个病毒群，包括那些可能不会引起急性、可识别疾病的病毒群。然而，识别新型病毒是困难的，因为它们的基因序列可能与参考数据库中已知的病毒基因组几乎没有共同点。
近日，宾夕法尼亚大学Perelman医学院的研究人员在Cell Host & Microbe杂志发表了题为Redondoviridae, a Family of Small, Circular DNA Viruses of the Human Oro-Respiratory Tract Associated with Periodontitis and Critical Illness的论文。研究使用宏基因组学，鉴定了一个被称为Redondoviridae的小型环状DNA病毒家族，该病毒与多种人类疾该有关。
研究者首先从人类肺供体的支气管肺泡灌洗样本中确定了两种redondovirus基因组。然后，扫描了数千个宏基因组学样本，并收集了另外17个完整的redondovirus基因组。检测样本主要来自人的呼吸道和口咽部，研究发现这些部位Redondoviridae是第二常见的真核DNA病毒家族；此外，Redondovirus序列与牙周疾病有关，并且丰度随治疗而降低；在重症监护病房的一些危重病人的呼吸样本中携带高水平的redondovirus。这些结果表明，redondoviruses在人类口腔-呼吸系统的位置上定植，并可在几种人类疾病中爆发。
该研究小组目前正在实验室中分离培养RedundoVirus，以研究其生物学的基本问题，以及更多关于其与疾病关系的临床问题。他们希望这一方向将有助于确定新病毒是否与疾病或是否导致疾病相关，医生可能能够利用这一知识更好地帮助ICU患者和牙科疾病患者。
SUMMARY
The global virome is largely uncharacterized but is now being unveiled by metagenomic DNA sequencing. Exploring the human respiratory virome, in particular, can provide insights into oro-respiratory diseases. Here, we use metagenomics to identify afamily of small circular DNA viruses—named Redondoviridae—associated with human diseases. We first identified two redondovirus genomes from bronchoal veolar lavage samples from human lung donors. We then queried thousands of metagenomic samples and recovered 17 additional complete redondovirus genomes. Detections were exclusively in human samples and mostly from respiratory tract andoro-pharyngeal sites, where Redondoviridae was the second most prevalent eukaryotic DNA virus family. Redondovirus sequences were associated with periodontal disease, and abundances decreased with treatment. Some critically ill patients in a medical intensive care unit were found to harbor high levels of redondoviruses in respiratory samples. These results suggest that redondoviruses colonize human oro-respiratory sites and can bloom in several human disorders.
原文链接：
1. Arwa A. Abbas,Louis J. Taylor, Marisol I. Dothard, Jacob S. Leiby, Ayannah S. Fitzgerald,Layla A. Khatib, Ronald G. Collman, Frederic D. Bushman.Redondoviridae, a Family of Small, Circular DNA Viruses of the Human Oro-Respiratory Tract Associated with Periodontitis and Critical Illness.Cell Host & Microbe, Volume 26, Issue 2, 14 August , Pages 297./10.1016/j.chom..04.001
本期编辑：Annabella
如果觉得《Cell Host & Microbe：宏基组技术发现全新病毒Redondoviridae》对你有帮助，请点赞、收藏，并留下你的观点哦！
