Research progress in antigenic diversity and genetic evolution of human sapoviruses

Abstract:

Human sapoviruses (HuSaV) are major pathogens causing sporadic acute gastroenteritis and related epidemics worldwide, especially in high-risk populations such as infants and immunocompromised patients. With rich antigenic and genetic diversity, human sapoviruses exhibit antigenic diversity and immunogenicity mainly in the P2 subdomain. The immunogenicity of the capsid protein is the theoretical basis for the development of vaccines against the viruses. With strong tolerance to capsid mutations without losing viral function, human sapoviruses can evolve rapidly through continuous amino acid mutations in the host, with mutations accumulating mainly in the P domain of VP1 and rarely in non-structural proteins and VP2. Sequence and structural changes enable human sapoviruses to escape the existing population immunity. Therefore, it is essential to explore the immune escape mechanisms of human sapoviruses and their antagonistic effects on host immune responses. This paper systematically reviews the studies of human sapoviruses in terms of genome characteristics, antigenic diversity characteristics, and genetic evolution mechanism, and puts forward the problems to be solved in the future research.