Masaaki Kitajima

The ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, which was officially declared by the World Health Organization. SARS-CoV-2 is a member of the family Coronaviridae that consists of a group of enveloped viruses with single-stranded RNA genome, which cause diseases ranging from common colds to acute respiratory distress syndrome. Although the major t

Abstract Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) was recently found to be the most abundant RNA virus in human feces, and is a plant virus belonging to the genus Tobamovirus in the family Virgoviridae . When in human feces, it is of dietary origin from peppers and their processed products, and is excreted from a large proportion of healthy human populations, but rarely found in animal feces. Over the past decade, this virus has been increasingly attracting research attention as a potential viral indica

Aichi virus 1 (AiV-1), belonging to the genus Kobuvirus in the family Picornaviridae, has been proposed as a causative agent of human gastroenteritis potentially transmitted by fecal-oral routes through contaminated food or water. AiV-1 is globally distributed and has been detected in various types of environmental samples, such as sewage, river water, groundwater, and shellfish. Recent environmental studies revealed that this virus could be detected in higher frequency and greater abundance tha

Aichi viruses (AiVs) have been proposed as a causative agent of human gastroenteritis potentially transmitted by fecal-oral routes through contaminated food or water. In the present study, we developed a TaqMan minor groove binder (MGB)-based reverse transcription-quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) system that is able to quantify AiVs and differentiate between genotypes A and B. This system consists of two assays, an AiV universal assay utilizing a universal primer pair and a universal probe and a duple

We investigated the prevalence, seasonal dependence, and genetic diversity of noroviruses (NoVs) in the Tamagawa River, which runs through a densely populated region in Tokyo, Japan, from April 2003 to March 2004. A total of 60 water samples were collected from five sites from upstream to downstream along the river, and 500 mL of which was concentrated using the "cation-coated filter method". Of the 60 samples tested, genogroup I (GI) and GII NoVs were detected from 28 (47%) and 18 (30%) samples

Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has the potential to predict COVID-19 cases; however, reliable methods for tracking SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations (C_RNA) in wastewater are lacking. In the present study, we developed a highly sensitive method (EPISENS-M) employing adsorption-extraction, followed by one-step RT-Preamp and qPCR. The EPISENS-M allowed SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection from wastewater at 50 % detection rate when newly reported COVID-19 cases exceed 0.69/100,000 inhabitants in a

Aichi virus (AiV) genomes were detected in 12 (100%) influent and 11 (92%) effluent wastewater and 36 (60%) river water samples. Among 260 strains identified, 255 were genotype A and 5 were genotype B. This is the first report describing the molecular characterization of AiVs in aquatic environments in Japan.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, a decrease in the prevalence of Influenza A virus (IAV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has been suggested by clinical surveillance. However, there may be potential biases in obtaining an accurate overview of infectious diseases in a community. To elucidate the impact of the COVID-19 on the prevalence of IAV and RSV, we quantified IAV and RSV RNA in wastewater collected from three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Sapporo, Japan, between October 2018 and J

Our results clearly demonstrate the seasonal trend and genetic diversity of NoVs in wastewater.