RESEARCHERS from the Longgang District Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published an article in Scientific Reports after it made breakthroughs in the research of the Nam Dinh virus (NDiV), the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

The center’s study demonstrated that NDiV can be isolated from mosquitoes in China and provided further evidence that the virus is prevalent in mosquito populations around the world.

In order to prevent insect-borne infectious diseases during the 26th Universiade held in Shenzhen in 2011, the center launched a project to study the variety of vectors in Longgang District in 2009. The staffers from the Longgang CDC captured 25,556 mosquitoes across the district and stored them in liquid nitrogen containers.

The center’s researchers discovered China’s first strain of NDiV, the second strain in the world, when screening viruses carried by the mosquitoes between 2011 and 2012.

The complete genome sequence of the isolated NDiV was submitted to the GenBank database (GenBank accession number KF522691) in May 2013. An article published in Chinese Journal of Virology by the center in 2013 officially announced the existence of NDiV in China.

Thought to be the first-known insect-borne nidovirus, NDiV was discovered during surveillance for Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in mosquitoes from Vietnam in 2002. The virus was identified in mosquitoes, and no evidence of vertebrates being infected with this virus has been detected.

By cooperating with experts from the Shenzhen CDC, China CDC, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University and Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Longgang center has completed cell culture and virus isolation, PCR detection of NDiV, electron microscopic analysis and complete viral genome sequencing in its research.

The discovery of NDiV has enriched the microbial pathogens library in China, and the Longgang researchers will carry out further studies involving animal experiments, molecular biology and immunology-based antibody detection methods and epidemiological surveys, according to the report. (Zhang Yang)