An orphan virus is a virus that is not associated with a disease but may possess

pathogenicity In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a ge ...

. Some orphan viruses include

adeno-associated virus Adeno-associated viruses (AAV) are small viruses that infect humans and some other primate species. They belong to the genus ''Dependoparvovirus'', which in turn belongs to the family ''Parvoviridae''. They are small (approximately 26 nm in di ...

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Parvoviridae Parvoviruses are a family of animal viruses that constitute the family ''Parvoviridae''. They have linear, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) genomes that typically contain two genes encoding for a replication initiator protein, called NS1, and the pr ...

human herpesvirus 7 ''Human betaherpesvirus 7'' (HHV-7) is one of nine known members of the ''Herpesviridae'' family that infects humans. HHV-7 is a member of ''Betaherpesvirinae'', a subfamily of the ''Herpesviridae'' that also includes HHV-6 and '' Cytomegaloviru ...

(

Herpesviridae ''Herpesviridae'' is a large family of DNA viruses that cause infections and certain diseases in animals, including humans. The members of this family are also known as herpesviruses. The family name is derived from the Greek word ''ἕρπει� ...

human foamy virus Human foamy virus (HFV) is a retrovirus and specifically belongs to the genus ''Spumavirus''. The spumaviruses are complex and significantly different from the other six genera of retroviruses in several ways. The foamy viruses derive their na ...

(

Retroviridae A retrovirus is a type of virus that inserts a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the DNA of a host cell that it invades, thus changing the genome of that cell. Once inside the host cell's cytoplasm, the virus uses its own reverse transcriptase ...

), Human Reovirus (

Reoviridae ''Reoviridae'' is a family of double-stranded RNA viruses. Member viruses have a wide host range, including vertebrates, invertebrates, plants, protists and fungi. They lack lipid envelopes and package their segmented genome within multi-layere ...

), hepatitis G (

Flaviviridae ''Flaviviridae'' is a family of enveloped positive-strand RNA viruses which mainly infect mammals and birds. They are primarily spread through arthropod vectors (mainly ticks and mosquitoes). The family gets its name from the yellow fever viru ...

), and

TT virus ''Alphatorquevirus'' is a Genus (biology), genus of viruses in the family ''Anelloviridae'', in group DNA virus#Group II: ssDNA viruses, II in the Baltimore classification. It encompasses many species of the virus formerly known as TTV, transfusi ...

(

Anelloviridae ''Anelloviridae'' is a family of viruses. They are classified as vertebrate viruses and have a non-enveloped capsid, which is round with isometric, icosahedral symmetry and has a triangulation number of 3. The name is derived from Italian ''ane ...

). Gilbert Dalldorf, a pathologist who showed that Coxsackie viruses paralyze mice but not humans, indicated that the term ‘orphan’ was created "in a moment of conviviality" by a group of virologists.Mortimer, Philip P. "Orphan Viruses, Orphan Diseases: Still the Raw Material for Virus Discovery." Reviews in Medical Virology 23.6 (2013): 337-39. Web. Many

enterovirus ''Enterovirus'' is a genus of positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses associated with several human and mammalian diseases. Enteroviruses are named by their transmission-route through the intestine ('enteric' meaning intestinal). Serologic ...

es are referred to as ECHO, enteric cytopathic human orphan viruses, because they were originally not associated with any disease. Even though many of them are associated with severe diseases, the name ECHO still continues to be used.

References

Viruses Zoonoses Virology {{virus-stub

See also

References