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A recent study reveals that the monkeypox, or mpox, To address this, Áine O’Toole and colleagues developed a molecular clock method to evaluate the evolution of MPXV. The findings confirm that the now globally distributed B.1 lineage of human mpox displays many mutations signaling APOBEC3 exposure and that this APOBEC3-driven evolution is a signature of a switch to sustained transmission within the human population.
Moreover, assuming a rate of ~6 APOBEC3 mutations per year, O’Toole et al. estimate that the recent MPXV clade IIb has been circulating in humans since at least 2016.
“Although the B.1 lineage across the world is now diminished – though not yet eradicated – the human epidemic from which it arose continues unabated,” write O’Toole et al. “Surveillance needs to be global if MPXV is to be eliminated from the human population and then prevented from reemerging.”
Reference: “APOBEC3 deaminase editing in mpox virus as evidence for sustained human transmission since at least 2016” by Áine O’Toole, Richard A. Neher, Nnaemeka Ndodo, Vitor Borges, Ben Gannon, João Paulo Gomes, Natalie Groves, David J. King, Daniel Maloney, Philippe Lemey, Kuiama Lewandowski, Nicholas Loman, Richard Myers, Ifeanyi F. Omah, Marc A. Suchard, Michael Worobey, Meera Chand, Chikwe Ihekweazu, David Ulaeto, Ifedayo Adetifa and Andrew Rambaut, 2 November 2023, Science.