Langat virus (LGTV) is a virus of the genus ''
Flavivirus
''Flavivirus'' is a genus of positive-strand RNA viruses in the family ''Flaviviridae''. The genus includes the West Nile virus, dengue virus, tick-borne encephalitis virus, yellow fever virus, Zika virus and several other viruses which may caus ...
''. The virus was first isolated in Malaysia in 1956 from a hard tick of the
Ixodes genus. This virus is antigenically related to
Omsk hemorrhagic fever
Omsk hemorrhagic fever is a viral hemorrhagic fever caused by a Flavivirus.
It was found in Siberia and was named for an outbreak in the city of Omsk. First records of the new virus appeared around 1940–1943.
Signs and symptoms
There are a nu ...
virus,
Kyasanur forest disease virus,
Alkhurma virus,
Louping ill virus and other viruses of the
tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) complex. The Langat virus does not pose a significant epidemiological threat in comparison with TBEV. There are no known cases of human diseases associated with LGTV. The Malaysian strain (LGT strain TP21, also known as the Yelantsev virus) is naturally attenuated and induces neutralizing antibodies to
tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) and protection against other TBEV complex viruses in animals.
LGTV-based vaccine
In the 1970s a live attenuate LGTV-based vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis was made. At the same time, another vaccine was tested, but the group vaccinated with the LGTV-based vaccine had the lowest level of developing infection decease.
However, there were two major problems: the relatively high rate of incidents of encephalitis (1:10,000) and lack of absolute protection from infection in endemic regions.
References
Flaviviruses
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