20.500.12556/RUL-188057 Raziskava okužb z virusom Zahodnega Nila v Sloveniji Investigation of West Nile virus infections in Slovenia Virus Zahodnega Nila (West Nile virus, WNV) sodi med ortoflaviviruse, ki povzročajo pomembno svetovno zdravstveno in gospodarsko breme, saj so povezani z večjimi izbruhi bolezni pri ljudeh in živalih. Podnebne spremembe, ki vplivajo na prenašalce, rezervoarje in naključne gostitelje, prispevajo k spremembam v zemljepisni razširjenosti WNV. Pri ljudeh okužbe z WNV v večini potekajo asimptomatsko ali kot vročinska bolezen z neznačilnimi znaki, le pri manjšem odstotku obolelih se razvijejo hujše nevroinvazivne oblike. WNV prenašajo komarji vrste Culex pipiens, virus pa primarno kroži med pticami. Kadar se okuženi komarji hranijo na drugih sesalcih, kot so ljudje in konji, lahko virus prenesejo tudi nanje. Virus že desetletja kroži v Evropi, vključno z bližnjimi državami, kot sta Italija in Srbija, ter v Južni in Severni Ameriki, Avstraliji, Afriki in Aziji. Namen magistrske naloge je bil preučiti pojavnost okužb z WNV pri bolnikih z znaki okužbe centralnega živčevja v Sloveniji ter analizirati genetske in filogenetske značilnosti slovenskih WNV. S serološkimi metodami smo pregledali 803 vzorce bolnikov z znaki okužbe centralnega živčevja med leti 2023 in 2024. Odkrili smo štiri pozitivne vzorce, ki smo jih nato potrdili in opredelili tudi z molekularnimi metodami. V molekularno analizo smo vključili tudi tri vzorce vran, ki so poginile zaradi okužbe WNV v istem obdobju. Pridobljene celotne genome virusa WNV iz različnih vzorcev smo filogenetsko analizirali in ugotovili, da v Sloveniji okužbe povzroča WNV genotip 2. Ugotovili smo, da so vsa slovenska zaporedja WNV iz leta 2024 med seboj povezana in so genetsko najbolj sorodna italijanskim zaporedjem iz istega leta, kar potrjuje vnos WNV v Slovenijo ob sočasnih izbruhih bolezni v sosednjih državah. The West Nile virus (WNV) belongs to the genus Orthoflaviviridae, which poses a significant global public health and economic burden because it is associated with major disease outbreaks in humans and animals. Climate change, which affects vectors, reservoirs, and incidental hosts, contributes to changes in the geographic distribution of WNV. In humans, WNV infections are mostly asymptomatic or present as a febrile illness with nonspecific symptoms; only a small percentage of those infected develop more severe neuroinvasive forms of the disease. WNV is transmitted by mosquitoes of the species Culex pipiens, and the virus circulates primarily among birds. When infected mosquitoes feed on other mammals, such as humans and horses, they can also transmit the virus to them. The virus has been circulating in Europe for decades, including in neighboring countries such as Italy and Serbia, as well as in South and North America, Australia, Africa, and Asia. The aim of this master’s thesis was to investigate the prevalence of WNV infections in patients with signs of central nervous system infection in Slovenia and to analyze the genetic and phylogenetic characteristics of Slovenian WNV. Using serological methods, we examined 803 samples from patients with signs of central nervous system infection between 2023 and 2024. We identified four positive samples, which we subsequently confirmed and characterized using molecular methods. We also included three samples from crows that died from WNV infection during the same period in our molecular analysis. We performed a phylogenetic analysis of the complete WNV genomes obtained from various samples and determined that WNV genotype 2 is responsible for the infections in Slovenia. We found that all Slovenian WNV sequences from 2024 are related to one another and are genetically most closely related to Italian sequences from the same year, which confirms the introduction of WNV into Slovenia during concurrent disease outbreaks in neighboring countries. ortoflavivirusi virus Zahodnega Nila komarji genotip 2 NGS orthoflaviviruses West Nile virus mosquitoes lineage 2 NGS true false false [P. Primc] Slovenski jezik Angleški jezik Magistrsko delo/naloga 2026-09-18 07:18:06 2026-09-18 07:18:12 2026-09-19 04:29:54 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 0000-00-00 NiDoloceno NiDoloceno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 578.76:616.9 289818 291633923 62067.pdf 62067.pdf 1 3E35D0F796735040BF6E1F099C586100 cd9a251ac07ab01abe7b5ab1b9d87ce86e3ec651dbc36dc94e138b9411a83f04 5002f9d0-b320-11f1-8bc5-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=248055 Biotehniška fakulteta 0 0 0