H5N1亚型禽流感病毒进化的研究进展

由H5N1流感病毒引起的高致病性禽流感,在禽类之间广泛传播。当人类接触这些禽类时,可能会被感染并产生严重的呼吸道症状,且死亡率高达60%。血凝素(hemagglutinin,HA)是H5N1病毒中和抗体的主要抗原,为了便于对病毒的HA突变进行研究,根据HA遗传基因的差异远近,所有的H5病毒株都被划分在20个分支内。对于H5N1病毒进化的研究在禽流感疫苗的研制、禽流感大流行的预防等方面均具有重要意义。现对禽流感、H5N1病毒特征、血凝素的结构功能、H5N1病毒的分支以及病毒进化的研究进行概述。     

Phylodynamics of H5N1 avian influenza virus in Indonesia

Understanding how pathogens invade and become established in novel host populations is central to the ecology and evolution of infectious disease. Influenza viruses provide unique opportunities to study these processes in nature because of their rapid evolution, extensive surveillance, large data sets and propensity to jump species boundaries. H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) is a major animal pathogen and public health threat. The virus is of particular importance in Indonesia, causing severe outbreaks among poultry and sporadic human infections since 2003. However, little is known about how H5N1 HPAIV emerged and established in Indonesia. To address these questions, we analysed Indonesian H5N1 HPAIV gene sequences isolated during 2003-2007. We find that the virus originated from a single introduction into East Java between November 2002 and October 2003. This invasion was characterized by an initially rapid burst of viral genetic diversity followed by a steady rate of lineage replacement and the maintenance of genetic diversity. Several antigenic sites in the haemagglutinin gene were subject to positive selection during the early phase, suggesting that host-immune-driven selection played a role in host adaptation and expansion. Phylogeographic analyses show that after the initial invasion of H5N1, genetic variants moved both eastwards and westwards across Java, possibly involving long-distance transportation by humans. The phylodynamics we uncover share similarities with other recently studied viral invasions, thereby shedding light on the ecological and evolutionary processes that determine disease emergence in a new geographical region.     

Neurovirulence in mice of H5N1 influenza virus genotypes isolated from Hong Kong poultry in 2001

We studied the pathogenicity of five different genotypes (A to E) of highly pathogenic avian H5N1 viruses, which contained HA genes similar to those of the H5N1 virus A/goose/Guangdong/1/96 and five different combinations of "internal" genes, in a mouse model. Highly pathogenic, neurotropic variants of genotypes A, C, D, and E were isolated from the brain after a single intranasal passage in mice. Genotype B virus was isolated from lungs only. The mouse brain variants had amino acid changes in all gene products except PB1, NP, and NS1 proteins but no common sets of mutations. We conclude that the original H5N1/01 isolates of genotypes A, C, D, and E were heterogeneous and that highly pathogenic neurotropic variants can be rapidly selected in mice.     

Intranasal administration of adjuvant-combined recombinant influenza virus HA vaccine protects mice from the lethal H5N1 virus infection

Attenuated recombinant H5N1 influenza virus was constructed to develop a safe H5N1 influenza vaccine. The immunogenicity and protective effect of the vaccine prepared from haemagglutinin-modified recombinant H5N1 influenza virus was evaluated in mice intranasally co-administered with cholera toxin B subunit containing a trace amount of holotoxin (CTB*), synthetic double-stranded RNA, poly (I:C) or chitin microparticles (CMP) as adjuvants. Intranasal administration of recombinant H5 HA split vaccine with CTB* or poly(I:C) and/or CMP elicited an immunological response with both anti-H5 HA IgA in the nasal wash and anti-H5 HA IgG antibody in the serum, and showed a protective against lethal H5N1 A/Hong Kong/483/97 (HK483) infection. We also demonstrated that intranasal co-administration of antigen with both poly (I:C) and CMP enhanced the expression of Toll-like receptor (TLR) 3, TLR7 in the spleen. These results indicate that poly (I:C) and CMP are highly effective as mucosal adjuvants for use with the nasal H5N1 vaccine.     

Cross-reactive, cell-mediated immunity and protection of chickens from lethal H5N1 influenza virus infection in Hong Kong poultry markets

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 (B(2)/B(2)) infected with an H9N2 influenza virus to naive inbred chickens (B(2)/B(2)) 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.     

Interspecies transmission and host restriction of avian H5N1 influenza virus

Long-term endemicity of avian H5N1 influenza virus in poultry and continuous sporadic human infections in several countries has raised the concern of another potential pandemic influenza. Suspicion of the avian origin of the previous pandemics results in the close investigation of the mechanism of interspecies transmission. Entry and fusion is the first step for the H5N1 influenza virus to get into the host cells affecting the host ranges. Therefore receptor usage study has been a major focus for the last few years. We now know the difference of the sialic acid structures and distributions in different species, even in the different parts of the same host. Many host factors interacting with the influenza virus component proteins have been identified and their role in the host range expansion and interspecies transmission is under detailed scrutiny. Here we review current progress in the receptor usage and host factors. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2005CB523001, 2005CB523002), National Key Technologies Research & Development Program (Grant 2006BAD06A01/2006BAD06A04); US National Institutes of Health (NIH) (Grant 3 U19 AI051915-05S1), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 30599434). GAO FG is a distinguished young investigator of the NSFC (Grant No. 30525010).     

H5N1 avian influenza in China

H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus was first detected in a goose in Guangdong Province of China in 1996. Multiple genotypes of H5N1 viruses have been identified from apparently healthy waterfowl since 1999. In the years 2004–2008, over 100 outbreaks in domestic poultry occurred in 23 provinces and caused severe economic damage to the poultry industry in China. Beginning from 2004, a culling plus vaccination strategy has been implemented for the control of epidemics. Since then, over 35420000 poultry have been depopulated, and over 55 billion doses of the different vaccines have been used to control the outbreaks. Although it is logistically impossible to vaccinate every single bird in China due to the large poultry population and the complicated rearing styles, there is no doubt that the increased vaccination coverage has resulted in decreased disease epidemic and environmental virus loading. The experience in China suggests that vaccination has played an important role in the protection of poultry from H5N1 virus infection, the reduction of virus load in the environment, and the prevention of H5N1 virus transmission from poultry to humans. Supported by the Key Animal Infectious Disease Control Program of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Chinese National S&T Plan(Grant No. 2004BA519A-57), National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos: 2005CB523005, 2005CB523200).     

Isolation and characterization of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus subtype H5N1 from donkeys

Background  

The highly pathogenic H5N1 is a major avian pathogen that crosses species barriers and seriously affects humans as well as some mammals. It mutates in an intensified manner and is considered a potential candidate for the possible next pandemic with all the catastrophic consequences.     

Spread of H5N1 avian influenza virus: an ecological conundrum

The role of wild birds in the spread of influenza H5N1 virus remains speculative and the ecology of influenza A viruses in nature is largely unstudied. There is an urgent need for multidisciplinary studies to explore the ecology of avian influenza viruses in wild birds and the environment to support ecological interpretation of the source of disease outbreaks in poultry.     

Two-dimensional antigenic dendrogram and phylogenetic tree of avian influenza virus H5N1

The hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) titers of a panel of 25 mouse monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against 44 isolates of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 were determined. A two-dimensional antigenic dendrogram was constructed by hierarchical clustering of HI titers. Viruses with similar reactivity patterns were clustered horizontally, whereas MAbs were clustered vertically. In this 2-D dendrogram, with 40% similarity as a cut-off, four virus clusters and four MAbs clusters were identified. A phylogenetic tree based on the deduced amino acid sequence of the hemagglutinin gene of tested viruses was constructed and its topology was compared to the antigenic dendrogram. Interestingly, viruses with high genetic homology in the phylogenetic tree also had high similarity in their reactivity patterns, as indicated by their relatedness in the tree and close clustering in the dendrogram, respectively. However, the reverse and the converse were also true. Of the five pairs of viruses in the dendrogram with bootstrap values higher than 75, four pairs were in concordance with their genetic relatedness. However, one pair contained viruses belong to two distinct genetic clades. These results were discussed in the context of antigenic variation, genetic polymorphism, and the potential application of MAbs in antigenic analysis.     

Protection of mice against a lethal influenza virus challenge after immunization with yeast-derived secreted influenza virus hemagglutinin.

The A/Victoria/3/75 (H3N2-subtype) hemagglutinin (HA) gene was engineered for expression in Pichia pastoris as a soluble secreted molecule. The HA cDNA lacking the C-terminal transmembrane anchor-coding sequence was fused to the Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-mating factor secretion signal and placed under control of the methanol-inducible P. pastoris alcohol oxidase 1 (AOX1) promoter. Growth of transformants on methanol-containing medium resulted in the secretion of recombinant non-cleaved soluble hemagglutinin (HA0s). Remarkably, the pH of the induction medium had an important effect on the expression level, the highest level being obtained at pH 8.0. The gel filtration profile and the reactivity against a panel of different HA-conformation specific monoclonal antibodies indicated that HA0s was monomeric. Analysis of the N-linked glycans revealed a typical P. pastoris type of glycosylation, consisting of glycans with 10-12 glycosyl residues. Mice immunized with purified soluble hemagglutinin (HA0s) showed complete protection against a challenge with 10 LD50 of mouse-adapted homologous virus (X47), whereas all control mice succumbed. Heterologous challenge with X31 virus [A/Aichi/2/68 (H3N2-subtype)], resulted in significantly higher survival rates in the immunized group compared with the control group. These results, together with the safety, reliability and economic potential of P. pastoris, as well as the flexibility and fast adaptation of the expression system may allow development of an effective recombinant influenza vaccine.     

Characterization of a highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus isolated from an ostrich

The continued spread of a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus among poultry and wild birds has posed a potential threat to human public health. An influenza pandemic happens, when a new subtype that has not previously circulated in humans emerges. Almost all of the influenza pandemics in history have originated from avian influenza viruses (AIV). Birds are significant reservoirs of influenza viruses. In the present study, we performed a survey of avian influenza virus in ostriches and H5N1 virus (A/Ostrich/SuZhou/097/03, China097) was isolated. This H5N1 virus is highly pathogenic to both chickens and mice. It is also able to replicate in the lungs of, and to cause death in, BALB/c mice following intranasal administration. It forms plaques in chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cells in the absence of trypsin. The hemagglutinin (HA) gene of the virus is genetically similar to A/Goose/Guangdong/1/96(H5N1) and belongs to clade 0. The HA sequence contains multiple basic amino acids adjacent to the cleavage site, a motif associated with HPAI viruses. More importantly, the existence of H5N1 isolates in ostriches highlights the potential threat of wild bird infections to veterinary and public health.     

Protection against avian influenza H9N2 virus challenge by immunization with hemagglutinin- or neuraminidase-expressing DNA in BALB/c mice

Avian influenza viruses of H9N2 subtype are widely spread in avian species. The viruses have recently been transmitted to mammalian species, including humans, accelerating the efforts to devise protective strategies against them. In this study, an avian influenza H9N2 virus strain (A/Chicken/Jiangsu/7/2002), isolated in Jiangsu Province, China, was used to infect BALB/c mice for adaptation. After five lung-to-lung passages, the virus was stably proliferated in a large quantity in the murine lung and caused the deaths of mice. In addition, we explored the protection induced by H9N2 virus hemagglutinin (HA)- and neuraminidase (NA)-expressing DNAs in BALB/c mice. Female BALB/c mice aged 6-8 weeks were immunized once or twice at a 3-week interval with HA-DNA and NA-DNA by electroporation, respectively, each at a dose of 3, 10 or 30microg. The mice were challenged with a lethal dose (40x LD(50)) of influenza H9N2 virus four weeks after immunization once or one week after immunization twice. The protections of DNA vaccines were evaluated by the serum antibody titers, residual lung virus titers, and survival rates of the mice. The result showed that immunization once with not less than 10microg or twice with 3microg HA-DNA or NA-DNA provided effective protection against homologous avian influenza H9N2 virus.     

The variable codons of H5N1 avian influenza A virus haemagglutinin genes

We investigated the selection pressures on the haemagglutinin genes of H5N1 avian influenza viruses using fixed effects likelihood models. We found evidence of positive selection in the sequences from isolates from 1997 to 2007, except viruses from 2000. The haemagglutinin sequences of viruses from southeast Asia, Hong Kong and mainland China were the most polymorphic and had similar nonsyn-onymous profiles. Some sites were positively selected in viruses from most regions and a few of these sites displayed different amino acid patterns. Selection appeared to produce different outcomes in vi-ruses from Europe, Africa and Russia and from different host types. One position was found to be positively selected for human isolates only. Although the functions of some positively selected posi-tions are unknown, our analysis provided evidence of different temporal, spatial and host adaptations for H5N1 avian influenza viruses.     

The variable codons of H5N1 avian influenza A virus haemagglutinin genes

We investigated the selection pressures on the haemagglutinin genes of H5N1 avian influenza viruses using fixed effects likelihood models. We found evidence of positive selection in the sequences from isolates from 1997 to 2007, except viruses from 2000. The haemagglutinin sequences of viruses from southeast Asia, Hong Kong and mainland China were the most polymorphic and had similar nonsynonymous profiles. Some sites were positively selected in viruses from most regions and a few of these sites displayed different amino acid patterns. Selection appeared to produce different outcomes in viruses from Europe, Africa and Russia and from different host types. One position was found to be positively selected for human isolates only. Although the functions of some positively selected positions are unknown, our analysis provided evidence of different temporal, spatial and host adaptations for H5N1 avian influenza viruses.     

First case of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus in Spain

Background  

In August 2006 a major epidemic of bluetongue virus serotype 8 (BTV8) started off in North-West Europe. In the course of 2007 it became evident that BTV8 had survived the winter in North-West Europe, re-emerged and spread exponentially. Recently, the European Union decided to start vaccination against BTV8. In order to improve the understanding of the epidemiological situation, it was necessary to execute a cross-sectional serological study at the end of the BT vector season. Cattle were the target species for cross-sectional serological studies in Europe at the end of 2006 and 2007. However, there was no information on the BTV8-seroprevalence in sheep and goats.     

Susceptibility of wood ducks to H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus

Since 2002, H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses have caused mortality in numerous species of wild birds; this is atypical for avian influenza virus (AIV) infections in these avian species, especially for species within the order Anseriformes. Although these infections document the susceptibility of wild birds to H5N1 HPAI viruses and the spillover of these viruses from infected domestic birds to wild birds, it is unknown whether H5N1 HPAI viruses can persist in free-living avian populations. In a previous study, we established that wood ducks (Aix sponsa) are highly susceptible to infection with H5N1 HPAI viruses. To quantify this susceptibility and further evaluate the likelihood of H5N1 HPAI viral maintenance in a wild bird population, we determined the concentration of virus required to produce infection in wood ducks. To accomplish this, 25 wood ducks were inoculated intranasally at 12-16 wk of age with decreasing concentrations of a H5N1 HPAI virus (A/Whooper Swan/Mongolia/244/05 [H5N1]). The median infectious dose and the lethal dose of H5N1 HPAI virus in wood ducks were very low (10(0.95) and 10(1.71) median embryo infectious dose [EID(50)]/ml, respectively) and less than that of chickens (10(2.80) and 10(2.80) EID(50)/ml). These results confirm that wood ducks are highly susceptible to infection with H5N1 HPAI virus. The data from this study, combined with what is known experimentally about H5N1 HPAI virus infection in wood ducks and viral persistence in aquatic environments, suggest that the wood duck would represent a sensitive indicator species for H5N1 HPAI. Results also suggest that the potential for decreased transmission efficiency associated with reduced viral shedding (especially from the cloaca) and a loss of environmental fitness (in water), may be offset by the ability of this virus to be transmitted through a very low infectious dose.     

The changing nature of avian influenza A virus (H5N1)

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus subtype H5N1 has been endemic in some bird species since its emergence in 1996 and its ecology, genetics and antigenic properties have continued to evolve. This has allowed diverse virus strains to emerge in endemic areas with altered receptor specificity, including a new H5 sublineage with enhanced binding affinity to the human-type receptor. The pandemic potential of H5N1 viruses is alarming and may be increasing. We review here the complex dynamics and changing nature of the H5N1 virus that may contribute to the emergence of pandemic strains.     

An avian influenza H5N1 virus that binds to a human-type receptor

Avian influenza viruses preferentially recognize sialosugar chains terminating in sialic acid-alpha2,3-galactose (SAalpha2,3Gal), whereas human influenza viruses preferentially recognize SAalpha2,6Gal. A conversion to SAalpha2,6Gal specificity is believed to be one of the changes required for the introduction of new hemagglutinin (HA) subtypes to the human population, which can lead to pandemics. Avian influenza H5N1 virus is a major threat for the emergence of a pandemic virus. As of 12 June 2007, the virus has been reported in 45 countries, and 312 human cases with 190 deaths have been confirmed. We describe here substitutions at position 129 and 134 identified in a virus isolated from a fatal human case that could change the receptor-binding preference of HA of H5N1 virus from SAalpha2,3Gal to both SAalpha2,3Gal and SAalpha2,6Gal. Molecular modeling demonstrated that the mutation may stabilize SAalpha2,6Gal in its optimal cis conformation in the binding pocket. The mutation was found in approximately half of the viral sequences directly amplified from a respiratory specimen of the patient. Our data confirm the presence of H5N1 virus with the ability to bind to a human-type receptor in this patient and suggest the selection and expansion of the mutant with human-type receptor specificity in the human host environment.