scholarly journals A PB1-K577E Mutation in H9N2 Influenza Virus Increases Polymerase Activity and Pathogenicity in Mice

Viruses ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haruhiko Kamiki ◽  
Hiromichi Matsugo ◽  
Tomoya Kobayashi ◽  
Hiroho Ishida ◽  
Akiko Takenaka-Uema ◽  
...  

H9N2 avian influenza viruses are present in poultry worldwide. These viruses are considered to have pandemic potential, because recent isolates can recognize human-type receptor and several sporadic human infections have been reported. In this study, we aimed to identify mutations related to mammalian adaptation of H9N2 influenza virus. We found that mouse-adapted viruses had several mutations in hemagglutinin (HA), PB2, PA, and PB1. Among the detected mutations, PB1-K577E was a novel mutation that had not been previously reported to involve mammalian adaptation. A recombinant H9N2 virus bearing only the PB1-K577E mutation showed enhanced pathogenicity in mice, with increased virus titers in nasal turbinates compared to that in mice infected with the wild-type virus. In addition, the PB1-K577E mutation increased virus polymerase activity in human cell culture at a lower temperature. These data suggest that the PB1-K577E mutation is a novel pathogenicity determinant of H9N2 virus in mice and could be a signature for mammalian adaptation.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Baz ◽  
Zeineb M’hamdi ◽  
Julie Carbonneau ◽  
Sophie Lavigne ◽  
Christian Couture ◽  
...  

Abstract The mouse is the most widely used animal model for influenza virus research. However, the susceptibility of mice to seasonal influenza virus depends on the strain of mouse and on the strain of the influenza virus. Seasonal A/H3N2 influenza viruses do not replicate well in mice and therefore they need to be adapted to this animal model. In this study, we generated a mouse-adapted A/H3N2 virus (A/Switzerland/9715293/2013 [MA-H3N2]) by serial passaging in mouse lungs that exhibited greater virulence compared to the wild-type virus (P0-H3N2). Seven mutations were found in the genome of MA-H3N2: PA(K615E), NP(G384R), NA(G320E) and HA(N122D, N144E, N246K, and A304T). Using reverse genetics, two synergistically acting genes were found as determinants of the pathogenicity in mice. First, the HA substitutions were shown to enhanced viral replication in vitro and, second, the PA-K615E substitution increased polymerase activity, although did not alter virus replication in vitro or in mice. Notably, single mutations had only limited effects on virulence in vitro. In conclusion, a co-contribution of HA and PA mutations resulted in a lethal mouse model of seasonal A/H3N2 virus. Such adapted virus is an excellent tool for evaluation of novel drugs or vaccines and for study of influenza pathogenesis.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Dong ◽  
Hong Bo ◽  
Libo Dong ◽  
Ye Zhang ◽  
Weijuan Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The first human-infected H9N2 influenza case can be traced back to 1998. Although the H9N2 influenza virus has low pathogenicity in animals, it donated partial or whole cassettes of internal genes to reassort novel viruses, such as H7N9, H10N8 and H5N6 viruses, that caused human infections with high fatality. Since 2013, sporadic but increasingly frequent human cases caused by H9N2 influenza virus have been confirmed globally, and most of them were from China. Methods: Information on human infections with H9N2 influenza virus was collected. Viral molecular determinants were determined by deep sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis was performed using MEGA 6.06. Antigenic analysis was performed by a hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay. Receptor binding preference analysis was conducted based on a solid-phase binding assay with synthetic sialylglycopolymers. Antiviral susceptibility was determined by a fluorescence-based neuraminidase (NA) inhibition assay. Serological study of occupationally exposed populations was performed by HI assay screening and confirmed by microneutralization assay.Results: From 2013 to 2018, 33 human H9N2cases were reported in China, among them 75.7% were children under 10 years old .The 22 viruses were isolated and concentrated in the Y280/G9 lineage of the HA and NA genes. All human H9N2 viruses belonged to the Y280/G9 antigenic lineage, presented a human-like receptor binding preference and remained susceptible to NA inhibitors, but most demonstrated resistance to M2 inhibitors. The seroprevalence of occupationally exposed populations was 2.15%, 3.17%, 2.93% and 1.54% from 2015 to 2018, respectively. A significant difference in seroprevalence was shown between provinces with human cases (3.66%) and provinces without human cases (2.18%). Conclusions: The continuous antigenic drift and human-like receptor binding preference of the H9N2 virus enable it to have a high risk of causing human infections. The status of the seropositivity in occupationally exposed populations implies a substantial threat to public health. Research on human infection with H9N2 influenza virus should be strengthened to monitor the emergence of sustainable human-to-human transmission and the possibility of an endemic or a pandemic related to it.


2014 ◽  
Vol 89 (1) ◽  
pp. 877-882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingtao Liu ◽  
Junqing Huang ◽  
Yuxin Chen ◽  
Hongzhi Chen ◽  
Qunhui Li ◽  
...  

The molecular bases of adaptation and pathogenicity of H9N2 influenza virus in mammals are largely unknown. Here, we show that a mouse-adapted PB2 gene with a phenylalanine-to-leucine mutation (F404L) mainly contributes to enhanced polymerase activity, replication, and pathogenicity of H9N2 in mice and also increases the virulence of the H5N1 and 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses. Therefore, we defined a novel pathogenic determinant, providing further insights into the pathogenesis of influenza viruses in mammals.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Pu ◽  
Yanbo Yin ◽  
Jiyu Liu ◽  
Xinyu Wang ◽  
Yong Zhou ◽  
...  

H9N2 Avian influenza virus (AIV) is regarded as a principal donor of viral genes through reassortment to co-circulating influenza viruses that can result in zoonotic reassortants. Whether H9N2 virus can maintain sustained evolutionary impact on such reassortants is unclear. Since 2013, avian H7N9 virus had caused five sequential human epidemics in China; the fifth wave in 2016-2017 was by far the largest but the mechanistic explanation behind the scale of infection is not clear. Here, we found that, just prior to the fifth H7N9 virus epidemic, H9N2 viruses had phylogenetically mutated into new sub-clades, changed antigenicity and increased its prevalence in chickens vaccinated with existing H9N2 vaccines. In turn, the new H9N2 virus sub-clades of PB2 and PA genes, housing mammalian adaptive mutations, were reassorted into co-circulating H7N9 virus to create a novel dominant H7N9 virus genotype that was responsible for the fifth H7N9 virus epidemic. H9N2-derived PB2 and PA genes in H7N9 virus conferred enhanced polymerase activity in human cells at 33°C and 37°C, and increased viral replication in the upper and lower respiratory tracts of infected mice which could account for the sharp increase in human cases of H7N9 virus infection in the 2016-2017 epidemic. The role of H9N2 virus in the continual mutation of H7N9 virus highlights the public health significance of H9N2 virus in the generation of variant reassortants of increasing zoonotic potential. IMPORTANCE Avian H9N2 influenza virus, although primarily restricted to chicken populations, is a major threat to human public health by acting as a donor of variant viral genes through reassortment to co-circulating influenza viruses. We established that the high prevalence of evolving H9N2 virus in vaccinated flocks played a key role, as donor of new sub-clade PB2 and PA genes in the generation of a dominant H7N9 virus genotype (G72) with enhanced infectivity in humans during the 2016-2017 N7N9 virus epidemic. Our findings emphasize that the ongoing evolution of prevalent H9N2 virus in chickens is an important source, via reassortment, of mammalian adaptive genes for other influenza virus subtypes. Thus, close monitoring of prevalence and variants of H9N2 virus in chicken flocks is necessary in the detection of zoonotic mutations.


2001 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 2516-2525 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sang Heui Seo ◽  
Robert G. Webster

ABSTRACT In 1997, avian H5N1 influenza virus transmitted from chickens to humans resulted in 18 confirmed infections. Despite harboring lethal H5N1 influenza viruses, most chickens in the Hong Kong poultry markets showed no disease signs. At this time, H9N2 influenza viruses were cocirculating in the markets. We investigated the role of H9N2 influenza viruses in protecting chickens from lethal H5N1 influenza virus infections. Sera from chickens infected with an H9N2 influenza virus did not cross-react with an H5N1 influenza virus in neutralization or hemagglutination inhibition assays. Most chickens primed with an H9N2 influenza virus 3 to 70 days earlier survived the lethal challenge of an H5N1 influenza virus, but infected birds shed H5N1 influenza virus in their feces. Adoptive transfer of T lymphocytes or CD8+ T cells from inbred chickens (B2/B2) infected with an H9N2 influenza virus to naive inbred chickens (B2/B2) protected them from lethal H5N1 influenza virus. In vitro cytotoxicity assays showed that T lymphocytes or CD8+ T cells from chickens infected with an H9N2 influenza virus recognized target cells infected with either an H5N1 or H9N2 influenza virus in a dose-dependent manner. Our findings indicate that cross-reactive cellular immunity induced by H9N2 influenza viruses protected chickens from lethal infection with H5N1 influenza viruses in the Hong Kong markets in 1997 but permitted virus shedding in the feces. Our findings are the first to suggest that cross-reactive cellular immunity can change the outcome of avian influenza virus infection in birds in live markets and create a situation for the perpetuation of H5N1 influenza viruses.


2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. e01526-20
Author(s):  
Z. Beau Reneer ◽  
Parker J. Jamieson ◽  
Amanda L. Skarlupka ◽  
Ying Huang ◽  
Ted M. Ross

ABSTRACTInfluenza viruses have caused numerous pandemics throughout human history. The 1957 influenza pandemic was initiated by an H2N2 influenza virus. This H2N2 influenza virus was the result of a reassortment event between a circulating H2N2 avian virus and the seasonal H1N1 viruses in humans. Previously, our group has demonstrated the effectiveness of hemagglutinin (HA) antigens derived using computationally optimized broadly reactive antigen (COBRA) methodology against H1N1, H3N2, and H5N1 viruses. Using the COBRA methodology, H2 HA COBRA antigens were designed using sequences from H2N2 viruses isolated from humans in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as H2Nx viruses isolated from avian and mammalian species between the 1950s and 2016. In this study, the effectiveness of H2 COBRA HA antigens (Z1, Z3, Z5, and Z7) was evaluated in DBA/2J mice and compared to that of wild-type H2 HA antigens. The COBRA HA vaccines elicited neutralizing antibodies to the majority of viruses in our H2 HA panel and across all three clades as measured by hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) and neutralization assays. Comparatively, several wild-type HA vaccines elicited antibodies against a majority of the viruses in the H2 HA panel. DBA/2J mice vaccinated with COBRA vaccines showed increase survival for all three viral challenges compared to the wild-type H2 vaccines. In particular, the Z1 COBRA is a promising candidate for future work toward a pandemic H2 influenza vaccine.IMPORTANCE H2N2 influenza has caused at least one pandemic in the past. Given that individuals born after 1968 have not been exposed to H2N2 influenza viruses, a future pandemic caused by H2 influenza is likely. An effective H2 influenza vaccine would need to elicit broadly cross-reactive antibodies to multiple H2 influenza viruses. Choosing a wild-type virus to create a vaccine may elicit a narrow immune response and not protect against multiple H2 influenza viruses. COBRA H2 HA vaccines were developed and evaluated in mice along with wild-type H2 HA vaccines. Multiple COBRA H2 HA vaccines protected mice from all three viral challenges and produced broadly cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies to H2 influenza viruses.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine S Xue ◽  
Jesse D Bloom

Abstract Influenza viruses rapidly diversify within individual human infections. Several recent studies have deep-sequenced clinical influenza infections to identify viral variation within hosts, but it remains unclear how within-host mutations fare at the between-host scale. Here, we compare the genetic variation of H3N2 influenza within and between hosts to link viral evolutionary dynamics across scales. Synonymous sites evolve at similar rates at both scales, indicating that global evolution at these putatively neutral sites results from the accumulation of within-host variation. However, nonsynonymous mutations are depleted between hosts compared to within hosts, suggesting that selection purges many of the protein-altering changes that arise within hosts. The exception is at antigenic sites, where selection detectably favors nonsynonymous mutations at the global scale, but not within hosts. These results suggest that selection against deleterious mutations and selection for antigenic change are the main forces that act on within-host variants of influenza virus as they transmit and circulate between hosts.


2016 ◽  
Vol 90 (8) ◽  
pp. 3966-3980 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junsong Zhang ◽  
Feng Huang ◽  
Likai Tan ◽  
Chuan Bai ◽  
Bing Chen ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe viral ribonucleoprotein (vRNP) complex of influenza A viruses (IAVs) contains an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase complex (RdRp) and nucleoprotein (NP) and is the functional unit for viral RNA transcription and replication. The vRNP complex is an important determinant of virus pathogenicity and host adaptation, implying that its function can be affected by host factors. In our study, we identified host protein Moloney leukemia virus 10 (MOV10) as an inhibitor of IAV replication, since depletion of MOV10 resulted in a significant increase in virus yield. MOV10 inhibited the polymerase activity in a minigenome system through RNA-mediated interaction with the NP subunit of vRNP complex. Importantly, we found that the interaction between MOV10 and NP prevented the binding of NP to importin-α, resulting in the retention of NP in the cytoplasm. Both the binding of MOV10 to NP and its inhibitory effect on polymerase activity were independent of its helicase activity. These results suggest that MOV10 acts as an anti-influenza virus factor through specifically inhibiting the nuclear transportation of NP and subsequently inhibiting the function of the vRNP complex.IMPORTANCEThe interaction between the influenza virus vRNP complex and host factors is a major determinant of viral tropism and pathogenicity. Our study identified MOV10 as a novel host restriction factor for the influenza virus life cycle since it inhibited the viral growth rate. Conversely, importin-α has been shown as a determinant for influenza tropism and a positive regulator for viral polymerase activity in mammalian cells but not in avian cells. MOV10 disrupted the interaction between NP and importin-α, suggesting that MOV10 could also be an important host factor for influenza virus transmission and pathogenicity. Importantly, as an interferon (IFN)-inducible protein, MOV10 exerted a novel mechanism for IFNs to inhibit the replication of influenza viruses. Furthermore, our study potentially provides a new drug design strategy, the use of molecules that mimic the antiviral mechanism of MOV10.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
yuqi Wang ◽  
Yanyan Wang ◽  
Hong Cao

Abstract Background: Influenza virus infection with seasonal or occasional but devastating morbidity and mortality, is a severe threat to public health. The frequent emergence of resistant viral strains limited application of current antivirals and posing an urgent need for novel antiviral therapies. Natural products offered a broad prospect in the screening and development of new influenza inhibitors.Methods: In this research, a high-throughput antiviral screening for 891 natural products was performed based on a recombinant reporter influenza A virus. According to the cytotoxicity assay and dose-response relationship, alloprogesterone (ALLO), as the positive hit was selected, and verified by viral titer reduction assay and immunofluorescence using a wild-type virus. Followingly, we explored its antiviral potency of counteracting with IAV and IBV, and preliminary investigated the mechanism of ALLO through time-of-addition assay and mini-replicon system.Results: Under the criteria of 80% inhibition and 70% cell viability, ALLO was screened out and confirmed antiviral activity in varied cells. The inhibitory effect of ALLO against influenza virus with a dose-dependent manner and significantly reduced viral yield of five different influenza viruses in the presence of 40 µM ALLO, including oseltamivir-resistant virus. Moreover, ALLO exhibited no influence on IAV entry or release during the viral replication cycle, but obviously interfered with the genome replication regarding post-infection 2 hrs to 6 hrs, which is consistent with the evidence of decreased polymerase activity.Conclusions: In summary, we firstly identified a new pharmacological activity of ALLO, as a broad spectrum inhibitor for treatment influenza infections, targeting viral replication stage and possessing great value of further development.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Su ◽  
Rhodri Harfoot ◽  
Yvonne Su ◽  
Jennifer DeBeauchamp ◽  
Udayan Joseph ◽  
...  

Abstract The emergence of a pandemic influenza virus may be better anticipated if we better understand the evolutionary steps taken by avian influenza viruses as they adapt to mammals. We used ancestral sequence reconstruction to resurrect viruses representing initial adaptive stages of the European avian-like H1N1 virus as it transitioned from avian to swine hosts. We demonstrate that efficient transmissibility in pigs was gained through stepwise adaptation after 1983. These time-dependent adaptations resulted in changes in hemagglutinin receptor binding specificity and increased viral polymerase activity. An NP-R351K mutation under strong positive selection increased the transmissibility of a reconstructed virus. The stepwise-adaptation of a wholly avian influenza virus to a mammalian host suggests a window where targeted intervention may have highest impact. Successful intervention will, however, require strategic coordination of surveillance and risk assessment activities to identify these adapting viruses and guide pandemic preparedness resources.


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