J Korean Med Sci.  2024 May;39(18):e165. 10.3346/jkms.2024.39.e165.

Genomic Analysis of Monkeypox Virus During the 2023 Epidemic in Korea

• Choi CH
• Lee M
• Lee SE
• Kim JW
• Shin H
• Choi MM
• Yi H
• Kim MK
• Jeon J
• Park JS
• Kim Y
• Lim SY
• Chin B
• Chung YS

• KMID: 2555504
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2024.39.e165

Abstract

We aimed to characterize the genomes of monkeypox virus isolates from the Far East, providing insights into viral transmission and evolution. Genomic analysis was conducted on 8 isolates obtained from patients with monkeypox virus disease in the Republic of Korea between May 2022 and early 2023. These isolates were classified into Clade IIb. Distinct lineages, including B.1.1, A.2.1, and B.1.3, were observed in 2022 and 2023 isolates, with only the B.1.3 lineage detected in six isolates of 2023. These genetic features were specific to Far East isolates (the Republic of Korea, Japan, and Taiwan), distinguishing them from the diverse lineages found in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Oceania. In early 2023, the prevalence of the B.1.3 lineage of monkeypox virus identified in six patients with no overseas travel history is considered as an indicator of the potential initiation of local transmission in the Republic of Korea.

Keyword

Mpox; Monkeypox Virus; Genomic Analysis

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Phylogenetic tree of 8 monkeypox virus isolates in the Republic of Korea and isolates in GISAID and GenBank constructed using the NextStrain analysis pipeline. (A) The currently circulating isolates belong to the B.1 lineage. Isolates in the Republic of Korea clustered into the B.1.3 lineage indicated by the red squares within the B.1 lineage. (B) Monkeypox virus isolates from Asia (denoted by red squares) tended to cluster within the B.1.3 lineage. (C) Six monkeypox virus isolates of 2023 in the Republic of Korea within the B.1.3 lineage (in blue) were closely related to isolates from Japan (in red) and Taiwan (in yellow) with close clustering observed with isolates from Japan.

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