Astroviruses
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Astroviruses were discovered in 1975 with an electron microscopic study of excrement of 120 children under 2 years old suffering from gastroenteritis. With electron microscopy, the virion had a typical star shape, so it was given to him the name astrovirus (Greek astron - star).
Astroviruses can cause diarrhea in animals. Astroviruses have a size of about 28 nm. The genome is represented by single-stranded RNA. Astroviruses belong to the family Caliciviridae.
There are 5 of their serotypes. A pervasive disease in humans - diarrhea in newborns - causes serotype 1 in 75 cases. Two structural proteins are found in the virion. Astroviruses are hardly cultivated in human and monkey cell cultures without a cytopathic effect, so the virion is detected by immunofluorescence in a cell culture. To detect the astrovirus in the excrements of patients, the method of immune electron microscopy can be used.
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