近年来，通过阿米巴共培养等方法发现了一批新的病毒，统称为巨大病毒（giant virus）。它们分布广泛，不仅有很大的病毒颗粒，基因组也非常庞大，还编码许多与蛋白质合成相关的基因，突破了人们对病毒的一般认识，引发了对病毒起源和本质的讨论。巨大病毒被认为有潜在致病性。本文综述了在人体中针对两类最早发现的巨大病毒——拟菌病毒（Mimivirus）和马赛病毒（Marseillevirus）开展的血清学、分子生物学、宏基因组检测、病毒分离及其对哺乳动物感染和致病性研究的进展

In recent years, a series of new viruses were isolated through co-culture with amoebae. These viruses, generally named as “giant viruses” with large virus particles as well as huge genomes, were found to be widely spread over the world. The fact that they encode genes involved in protein synthesis triggered discussion on the issues such as the viral nature and origin. Giant viruses also have the potential to be pathogenic to humans. Here, we reviewed the recent progress on serological, molecular biological, metagenomic detection, and virus isolation of two giant viruses, Mimivirus and Marseillevirus, in human samples, as well as their infection and pathogenesis in mammalian cell lines and animal models.