Abstract
West Nile virus (WNV) is an arbovirus with important public health implications globally. This study characterizes a viral isolate, 2004Hou3, in comparison with the NY99 strain from the original WNV outbreak in New York, USA. NextGen sequencing was used to compare the viral isolates genetically, while wild-type C57/BL6 mice were used to compare pathogenicity and viral persistence. Significant differences in survival and clinical presentations were noted, with minor genetic variations between the two strains potentially offering an explanation. One notable difference is that 5 of 35 mice infected with the 2004Hou3 strain developed hind limb flaccid paralysis, suggesting its possible use as a small animal pathogenesis model for this clinical characteristic often observed in human WN neuroinvasive disease patients but not reported in other animal models of infection. Overall, this study suggests that 2004Hou3 is a less pathogenic strain with potential for use in long-term outcome studies using small animal models.
Highlights
West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes serious neurologic disease in many parts of the world
All amino acid substitutions are within the same class: polar/positive-to-polar/positive amino acids, or similar size hydrophobic-to-hydrophobic amino acids, one substitution of valine to phenylalanine is observed
The detected changes are not expected to cause any meaningful changes to protein folding, as most substitutions include amino acids with like characteristics, the most prominent change is the substitution of valine to phenylalanine as a smaller aliphatic to aromatic amino acid substitution
Summary
West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes serious neurologic disease in many parts of the world. The majority (~80%) of WNV infected patients are asymptomatic, a small proportion (
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