An outbreak of acute respiratory disease caused by a virus associated RNA II gene mutation strain of human adenovirus 7 in China, 2015.

Xiaoxia Yang,Hao Li,Hongbin Song,Beibei Liang,Peng Li,Fuli Wu,Qiuxia Ma,Shaofu Qiu,Xinying Du,Chaojie Yang,Leili Jia,Chunyu Sheng,Qiongshu Wang,Hongbo Liu,Ligui Wang,Jing Xie,Dong-Yan Jin

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0172519

Abstract

Human adenovirus 7 (HAdV-7) strains are a major cause of acute respiratory disease (ARD) among adults and children, associated with fatal pneumonia. An ARD outbreak caused by HAdV-7 that involved 739 college students was reported in this article. To better understand the underlying cause of this large-scale epidemic, virus strains were isolated from infected patients and sequence variations of the whole genome sequence were detected. Evolutionary trees and alignment results indicated that the major capsid protein genes hexon and fibre were strongly conserved among serotype 7 strains in China at that time. Instead, the HAdV-7 strains presented three thymine deletions in the virus associated RNA (VA RNA) II terminal region. We also found that the mutation might lead to increased mRNA expression of an adjacent gene, L1 52/55K, and thus promoted faster growth. These findings suggest that sequence variation of VA RNA II gene was a potential cause of such a severe HAdV-7 infection and this gene should be a new-emerging factor to be monitored for better understanding of HAdV-7 infection.

Highlights

Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) are pathogenic viruses that can usually cause acute respiratory disease (ARD), acute follicular conjunctivitis, haemorrhagic cystitis, gastroenteritis, myocarditis, meningoencephalitis, and even death [1]
We report a large-scale outbreak of severe acute respiratory disease associated with Human adenovirus 7 (HAdV-7) that occurred in Wuhan, China, in 2015
In 2015, an outbreak of acute respiratory disease occurred in a college in Wuhan, China

Summary

Introduction

Human adenoviruses (HAdVs) are pathogenic viruses that can usually cause acute respiratory disease (ARD), acute follicular conjunctivitis, haemorrhagic cystitis, gastroenteritis, myocarditis, meningoencephalitis, and even death [1]. Outbreaks of adenovirus infection had been reported worldwide and are recognized as the leading cause of febrile illness and respiratory diseases [2]. Genome sequencing, and biological characteristics, HAdVs have been classified into seven species (HAdV-A to G), which include more than 64 serotypes [3]. Different genotypes have been associated with distinct clinical symptoms. Respiratory diseases have been linked mostly to HAdV-B serotypes 3, 7, and 14, and HAdV-C.

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