In July 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that monkeypox was a public health emergency of international concern. And, as of early December 2022, more than 82,000 human monkeypox cases have been confirmed in 110 countries worldwide. New preventative and therapeutic measures against the virus are needed.
Monkeypox is caused by monkeypox virus, an enveloped double-stranded DNA virus that belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus of the Poxviridae family. The monkeypox virus has its own DNA polymerase F8 which, when together with the processive cofactors A22 and E4, constitutes the polymerase holoenzyme for genome replication.
