Mpox Virus: Genetic Analysis and Evolution

00:01 So the the etiology of MPOX is the MPOX virus. MPOX virus is a DNA double-stranded DNA virus, like a smallpox virus. So we have nuclear acid surrounded by a core membrane.

00:22 And after you, you have a lateral body in yellow and a soluble protein antigen surrounded by an outer membrane, envelope membrane. So, the previous published sequences of MPOX virus showed that the MPOX virus and variola virus had evolved independently.

00:45 That excludes the idea of a mutation of MPOX virus into smallpox virus. So we cannot say that MPOX virus will replace the smallpox virus or smallpox virus, or no or MPOX virus can be mutated into smallpox virus.

01:09 And after that, we continue to to have the sequence of the virus isolated in, uh, Congo Basin countries and West African countries.

01:30 And it was shown that two genetic clades exist: the West African clade and the Congo Basin clade.

01:41 The two clades are geographically separated and have defined epidemiological and clinical differences.

01:50 Clade I is the Congo Basin is the most virulent, and the human to human transmission can go up to six sequential events, and discrete is reported in Gabon, Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

02:19 Clade II is the West Africa clade.

02:24 Uh, this is the less virulent and it is limited.

02:30 Uh, so human to human transmission is limited.

02:36 And also geographically is located in Nigeria, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, and Sierra Leone. So these phylogeny of the genome of smallpox virus show the variola virus they're on top, and vaccinia virus and West Africa clade and West Africa clade is clade II and MPOX Congo basin, which is a clade I.

03:15 So the different clades are described here.

03:18 And uh, and uh, some years ago, uh, it appeared that clade II is subdivided into clade IIa, and clade IIb. The clade IIa is the endemic clade, and clade IIb was responsible for the 2022 multi-country outbreak.

03:41 But clade I also uh, was subdivided.

03:46 But I show you here the distribution of clade I in blue. Clade IIa in yellow. And clade IIb in green. Here we mean that the m-pox is circulating now in the most of Congo provinces except in the south, because at the beginning m-pox was detected only in two provinces: equatorial provinces and Kasai provinces.

04:36 But now all 26 or 24 provinces notified the cases of M-pox .

04:50 And we are essentially we detected the a subclade of the clade I. Clade I is now subdivided into clade Ia that is endemic in the country and clade Ib that is associated with sexual transmission.

05:10 And both clades are now circulating in Kinshasa, the capital city of DRC, and almost all health zones were affected by the new subclade Ib.