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丙型肝炎病毒(hepatitis C virus,HCV)感染是一个世界性的公共卫生问题,该病毒感染后可引起急、慢性肝炎。由于HCV的宿主范围较窄,一直未找到合适的动物模型来研究该病毒的致病机制、免疫预防等,至今也无证据表明动物源的HCV同源病毒可能跨种传播给人类。最近,研究者在小型野生动物(如啮齿类动物、蝙蝠)和家养动物(如犬、马、牛)中相继发现了新型HCV同源病毒(HCV样病毒和GBV样病毒),这些病毒分别属于丙型肝炎病毒属(hepacivirus)或持续性G病毒属(pegivirus),研究这些病毒的基因组结构和生物学特征有助于HCV的起源及其致病机制和免疫等研究。本综述从HCV基本特征、相关病毒谈起,着重介绍新型HCV同源病毒,并探寻其自然宿主,进而讨论了人类重要病原之一HCV的起源问题。
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a worldwide public health problem that can cause acute and chronic hepatitis after being infected. Due to the narrow host range of HCV, no suitable animal model has been found to study the pathogenic mechanism of the virus, immune prevention and so on. So far, there is no evidence that animal-derived HCV homologous viruses may spread to humans across species. Recently, researchers have found novel HCV homologous viruses (HCV-like viruses and GBV-like viruses) in small wild animals such as rodents and bats and domestic animals such as dogs, horses and cattle, which belong to Hepacivirus or Persistent GV genus, studying the genomic structure and biological characteristics of these viruses contributes to the origin of HCV and its pathogenesis and immunity. In this review, we discuss the basic characteristics of HCV and related viruses, highlighting the new HCV homologous virus and exploring its natural host, and then discuss the origin of HCV, one of the important pathogens in humans.