Initially found in Japanese patients with hepatitis of unknown cause, TTV was detected in various populations without proven pathology, including blood donors.

Later the name torque (necklace) teno (from Latin tenuis - "thin") virus was adopted as it preserved the original abbreviation.

[7] The large number of epidemiological studies permitted to clearly point out the global distribution of the virus (Africa, North and South America, Asia, Europe, Oceania) in rural and urban populations.

Despite that the link between TTV infection and a given pathology has not been shown, the hypothesis of a relation between viral load and the immune status of the host was suggested.

[10] Related viruses have been found in chimpanzees, apes, African monkeys, tupaias, chickens, pigs, cows, sheep and dogs.

[12][13] TTV's genome is a negative sense, circular single-stranded piece of DNA, approximately 3.8 kb in length; it is a non-enveloped virus with a virion of about 40 nm in diameter.

Its genome contains 2 large open reading frames, encoding 770 and 202 amino acids, as well as several smaller ORFs.

Higher than usual viral loads have been associated with severe idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, cancer and lupus.

Some studies have described the presence of double strand TTV DNA in various tissues and organs suggesting an active replication in these localizations.