Marburg virus
Marburg virus is a hemorrhagic fever virus of the Filoviridae family of viruses and a member of the species Marburg marburgvirus, genus Marburgvirus. Marburg virus causes Marburg virus disease in humans and nonhuman primates, a form of viral hemorrhagic fever. The virus is considered to be extremely dangerous. The World Health Organization rates it as a Risk Group 4 Pathogen. In the United States, the NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ranks it as a Category A Priority Pathogen and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists it as a Category A Bioterrorism Agent. It is also listed as a biological agent for export control by the Australia Group.
The virus can be transmitted by exposure to one species of fruit bats or it can be transmitted between people via body fluids through unprotected sex and broken skin. The disease can cause bleeding, fever, and other symptoms similar to Ebola. However, Marburg virus is not the same as Ebola, although similar. Actual treatment of the virus after infection is not possible but early, professional treatment of symptoms like dehydration considerably increases survival chances.
In 2009, expanded clinical trials of an Ebola and Marburg vaccine began in Kampala, Uganda.
History
Discovery
Marburg virus was first described in 1967. During the 1960s it was noticed during small outbreaks of Marburg virus disease in the German cities Marburg and Frankfurt and the Yugoslav capital Belgrade. German workers were exposed to tissues of infected grivet monkeys at the city's former main industrial plant, the Behringwerke, then part of Hoechst, and later part of CSL Behring. During these outbreaks, 31 people became infected and seven of them died.Nomenclature
The virus is one of two members of the species Marburg marburgvirus, which is included in the genus Marburgvirus, family Filoviridae, order Mononegavirales. The name Marburg virus is derived from Marburg and the taxonomic suffix virus.Marburg virus was first introduced under this name in 1967. In 2005, the virus name was changed to Lake Victoria marburgvirus, confusingly making the only difference in distinguishing between a Marburg virus organism and its species as a whole italicization, as in Lake Victoria marburgvirus. Still, most scientific articles continued to use the name Marburg virus. Consequently, in 2010, the name Marburg virus was reinstated and the species name changed.
Human disease
MARV is one of two Marburg viruses that causes Marburg virus disease in humans. The other one is Ravn virus. Both viruses fulfill the criteria for being a member of the species Marburg marburgvirus because their genomes diverge from the prototype Marburg marburgvirus or the Marburg virus variant Musoke by <10% at the nucleotide level.Recorded outbreaks
Virology
Genome
Like all mononegaviruses, marburgvirions contain non-infectious, linear nonsegmented, single-stranded RNA genomes of negative polarity that possess inverse-complementary 3' and 5' termini, do not possess a 5' cap, are not polyadenylated, and are not covalently linked to a protein. Marburgvirus genomes are approximately 19 kbp long and contain seven genes in the order 3'-UTR-NP-VP35-VP40-GP-VP30-VP24-L-5'-UTR.Structure
Like all filoviruses, marburgvirions are filamentous particles that may appear in the shape of a shepherd's crook or in the shape of a "U" or a "6", and they may be coiled, toroid, or branched. Marburgvirions are generally 80 nm in width, but vary somewhat in length. In general, the median particle length of marburgviruses ranges from 795 to 828 nm, but particles as long as 14,000 nm have been detected in tissue culture. Marburgvirions consist of seven structural proteins. At the center is the helical ribonucleocapsid, which consists of the genomic RNA wrapped around a polymer of nucleoproteins. Associated with the ribonucleoprotein is the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase with the polymerase cofactor and a transcription activator. The ribonucleoprotein is embedded in a matrix, formed by the major and minor matrix proteins. These particles are surrounded by a lipid membrane derived from the host cell membrane. The membrane anchors a glycoprotein that projects 7 to 10 nm spikes away from its surface. While nearly identical to ebolavirions in structure, marburgvirions are antigenically distinct.Entry
cholesterol transporter protein appears to be essential for infection with both Ebola and Marburg virus. Two independent studies reported in the same issue of Nature showed that Ebola virus cell entry and replication requires NPC1. When cells from patients lacking NPC1 were exposed to Ebola virus in the laboratory, the cells survived and appeared immune to the virus, further indicating that Ebola relies on NPC1 to enter cells. This might imply that genetic mutations in the NPC1 gene in humans could make some people resistant to one of the deadliest known viruses affecting humans. The same studies described similar results with Marburg virus, showing that it also needs NPC1 to enter cells. Furthermore, NPC1 was shown to be critical to filovirus entry because it mediates infection by binding directly to the viral envelope glycoprotein and that the second lysosomal domain of NPC1 mediates this binding.In one of the original studies, a small molecule was shown to inhibit Ebola virus infection by preventing the virus glycoprotein from binding to NPC1. In the other study, mice that were heterozygous for NPC1 were shown to be protected from lethal challenge with mouse-adapted Ebola virus.
Replication
The marburg virus life cycle begins with virion attachment to specific cell-surface receptors, followed by fusion of the virion envelope with cellular membranes and the concomitant release of the virus nucleocapsid into the cytosol. The virus RdRp partially uncoats the nucleocapsid and transcribes the genes into positive-stranded mRNAs, which are then translated into structural and nonstructural proteins. Marburgvirus L binds to a single promoter located at the 3' end of the genome. Transcription either terminates after a gene or continues to the next gene downstream. This means that genes close to the 3' end of the genome are transcribed in the greatest abundance, whereas those toward the 5' end are least likely to be transcribed. The gene order is therefore a simple but effective form of transcriptional regulation. The most abundant protein produced is the nucleoprotein, whose concentration in the cell determines when L switches from gene transcription to genome replication. Replication results in full-length, positive-stranded antigenomes that are in turn transcribed into negative-stranded virus progeny genome copies. Newly synthesized structural proteins and genomes self-assemble and accumulate near the inside of the cell membrane. Virions bud off from the cell, gaining their envelopes from the cellular membrane they bud from. The mature progeny particles then infect other cells to repeat the cycle.Ecology
In 2009, the successful isolation of infectious MARV was reported from caught healthy Egyptian fruit bats. This isolation, together with the isolation of infectious RAVV, strongly suggests that Old World fruit bats are involved in the natural maintenance of marburgviruses. Further studies are necessary to establish whether Egyptian rousettes are the actual hosts of MARV and RAVV or whether they get infected via contact with another animal and therefore serve only as intermediate hosts. In 2012 the first experimental infection study of Rousettus aegyptiacus with MARV provided further insight into the possible involvement of these bats in MARV ecology. Experimentally infected bats developed relatively low viremia lasting at least 5 days, but remained healthy and did not develop any notable gross pathology. The virus also replicated to high titers in major organs, and organs that might possibly be involved in virus transmission. The relatively long period of viremia noted in this experiment could possibly also facilitate mechanical transmission by blood sucking arthropods in addition to infection of susceptible vertebrate hosts by direct contact with infected blood.Evolution
The viral strains fall into two clades—Ravn virus and Marburg virus. The Marburg strains can be divided into two—A and B. The A strains were isolated from Uganda, Kenya and Angola while the B strains were from the Democratic Republic of the Congo epidemic and a group of Ugandan isolates isolated in 2007–2009.The mean evolutionary rate of the whole genome was 3.3 × 10−4 substitutions/site/year.The Marburg strains had a mean root time of the most recent common ancestor of 177.9 years ago suggesting an origin in the mid 19th century. In contrast, the Ravn strains origin dated back to a mean 33.8 years ago. The most probable location of the Marburg virus ancestor was Uganda whereas that of the RAVV ancestor was Kenya.
Prevention
The Public Health Agency of Canada has a candidate rVSV vaccine for Marburg virus. Merck was developing it, but discontinued development.Biological weapon
The Soviet Union had an extensive offensive and defensive biological weapons program that included MARV. At least three Soviet research institutes had MARV research programs during the Cold War: the Virology Center of the Scientific-Research Institute for Microbiology in Zagorsk, the Scientific-Production Association "Vektor" in Koltsovo, and the Irkutsk Scientific-Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk. As most performed research was highly classified, it remains unclear how successful the MARV program was. However, Soviet defector Ken Alibek claimed that a weapon filled with MARV was tested at the Stepnogorsk Scientific Experimental and Production Base in Stepnogorsk, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, suggesting that the development of a MARV biological weapon had reached advanced stages. Independent confirmation for this claim is lacking. At least one laboratory accident with MARV, resulting in the death of Koltsovo researcher Nikolai Ustinov, occurred during the Cold War in the Soviet Union and was first described in detail by Alibek.MARV is a select agent under US law.