Identification of a novel torque teno mini virus in cerebrospinal fluid from a child with encephalitis

Abstract

Anelloviruses are single-strand circular DNA viruses and ubiquitous within the human population. Although there is no direct evidence, many studies have suggested the anelloviruses may be associated with a variety of diseases. In this study, a novel torque teno mini virus (TTMV) was detected in a child with unexplained encephalitis. The detected virus had a circular genome of 2943 nt in length and 3 open reading frames. It shared 45.4% – 35.9% nucleotide identities with known TTMV species and < 35% with the other species of anellovirus, which suggested it might belong to a new species within the genus Betatorquevirus. Phylogenetic analysis based on the amino acid sequences of ORF1 showed that this virus represented a distinct branch within the diversity of anellovirus. Whether this novel anellovirus strain is associated with encephalitis requires further study.