On Nov. 3, 2022, researchers have identified the specific mutations in the mpox virus that contribute to its continued infectiousness. The findings could lead to several outcomes: modified versions of existing drugs used to treat people suffering from mpox or the development of new drugs that account for the current mutations to increase their effectiveness at reducing symptoms and the spread of the virus.

Mpox has infected more than 77,000 people in more than 100 countries worldwide, and – similar to COVID-19 – mutations have enabled the virus to grow stronger and smarter, evading antiviral drugs and vaccines in its mission to infect more people.

Kamlendra Singh, a professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine and Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center principal investigator, collaborated with Shrikesh Sachdev, Shree Lekha Kandasamy and Hickman High School student Saathvik Kannan, to analyze the DNA sequences of more 200 strains of mpox virus spanning multiple decades, from 1965, when the virus first started spreading, to outbreaks in the early 2000s and again in 2022.

Researchers continue to question how the mpox virus has evolved over time. The efficacy of current CDC-approved drugs to treat mpox have been suboptimal, likely because they were originally developed to treat HIV and herpes but have since received emergency use authorization in an attempt to control the recent mpox outbreak.

“One hypothesis is when patients were being treated for HIV and herpes with these drugs, they may have also been infected with mpox without knowing, and the mpox virus got smarter and mutated to evade the drugs,” Singh said. “Another hypothesis is the mpox virus may be hijacking proteins we have in our bodies and using them to become more infectious and pathogenic.”