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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.

Sec. Virology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1566316

Identification and characterization of a novel human adenovirus type HAdV-D116

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Peking Union Medical College Hospital (CAMS), Beijing, China
  • 2 Perception Vision Medical Technologies Co. Ltd, Guangzhou, China
  • 3 Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease Pathogenomics, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Human adenovirus infections are typically associated with acute respiratory infection, keratoconjunctivitis, acute cystitis, hepatitis, and gastroenteritis, while central nervous system (CNS) related infections are rarely reported. In this study, a novel human adenovirus was identified in the cerebrospinal fluid from an encephalitis patient with X-linked agammaglobulinemia via metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS). Probe capture enrichment sequencing and PCR validation further confirmed the presence of this adenovirus in the patient's cerebrospinal fluid.Whole-genome analysis classified the virus within the Human mastadenovirus D species, revealing an approximately 2000 bp deletion in the E3 gene that resulted in the loss of CR1-gamma and RID-alpha regions and the formation of a novel open reading frame (ORF). The penton base, hexon, and fiber genes were identified as P33H28F71, designating this virus as a novel type, subsequently named HAdV-D116 by the Human Adenovirus Working Group. Recombination analysis suggested that HAdV-D116 is a recombinant strain derived from HAdV-D33, HAdV-D28, and HAdV-D71. Structural analysis of the fiber-knob domain indicated that HAdV-D116 likely uses sialic acid as a receptor. The unique genomic features of HAdV-D116, combined with the patient's immunodeficiency, are proposed to contribute to its possible CNS infectivity. The discovery of HAdV-D116 expands our understanding of human adenovirus tropism and underscores the need for vigilance regarding the emergence of novel adenovirus-related CNS infections.

    Keywords: Encephalitis, Human adenovirus, X-linked Agammaglobulinemia, metagenomic next-generation sequencing, HAdV-D116, AlphaFold2

    Received: 27 Jan 2025; Accepted: 10 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Zhou, Chen, Zhang, Ma, Liu, Ren, Guo, Gao, Lu, Su, Zhao, Xu and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Menglan Zhou, Peking Union Medical College Hospital (CAMS), Beijing, China
    Qiwen Yang, Peking Union Medical College Hospital (CAMS), Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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