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Causes and pathogenesis of Coxsackie and ECHO infection
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The causes of Coxsackie and ECHO infection
There are two groups of Coxsackie viruses : group A (24 serological types) and group B (6 serological types).
- Coxsackie viruses of group A are highly virulent for newborn mice, in which they cause severe myositis of skeletal muscles and death.
- Coxsackie viruses of group B differ in their ability to cause less severe myositis in mice, but they cause a characteristic lesion of the nervous system, sometimes of the pancreas and other internal organs.
Some types of Coxsackie A viruses and all types of Coxsackie viruses B multiply in the culture of human embryonic cells, monkey kidneys and other cultures, exerting a pronounced cytopathogenic effect. All types can be isolated by infecting suckling white mice that have a paralytic form of infection.
ECHO viruses (English Enteric Cytopathogenic Human Orphans) differ from Coxsackie viruses by the absence of pathogenicity for newborn mice.
Known are 31 serotype of these viruses, widely circulating among the population. Most serotypes of Coxsackie and ECHO viruses can cause disease in humans.
In addition to the Coxsackie and ECHO viruses, there are 4 more types of enteroviruses (types 68-71) that are well cultivated in the culture of kidney cells of the monkey. Types 68, 69 serve as causative agents of respiratory and intestinal diseases, type 70 - hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, and enterovirus type 71 were isolated from patients with meningitis and encephalitis.
The pathogenesis of Coxsackie and ECHO infection
Replication of Coxsackie and ECHO virus occurs in epithelial cells and lymphoid formations of the upper respiratory tract and intestine. Subsequently, viruses by hematogenous pathway according to the laws of tropism reach different target organs, causing acute serous meningitis or meningoencephalitis, acute myositis or myalgia, myocarditis, hepatitis, etc.
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