Abstract
Recently, a highly dangerous bird flu has infected over 130 patients in China, and the outbreak was attributed to a novel avian-origin H7N9 virus. Here, we performed a systematic analysis of the virus. We clarified the controversial viewpoint on neuraminidase (NA) origin and confirmed it was reassorted from Korean wild birds with higher confidence, whereas common ancestors of pathogenic H7N9 genes existed only one or two years ago. Further analysis of NA sequences suggested that most variations are not drug resistant and current drugs are still effective for the therapy. We also identified a potentially optimal 9-mer epitope, which can be helpful for vaccine development. The interaction of hemagglutinin (HA) and human receptor analog was confirmed by structural modeling, while NA might influence cellular processes through a PDZ-binding motif. A simplified virus infection model was proposed. Taken together, our studies provide a better understanding of the newly reassorted H7N9 viruses.
Highlights
A highly dangerous bird flu has infected over 130 patients in China, and the outbreak was attributed to a novel avian-origin H7N9 virus
The results suggested that common ancestors of the genes were originated in recent years ago, and the mutation rates of genes in highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H7N9 virues are greater than in swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) viruses (S-OIVs)[11]
In this work, we first clarified a controversial viewpoint on the origin of HPAI H7N9 NA3,6
Summary
A highly dangerous bird flu has infected over 130 patients in China, and the outbreak was attributed to a novel avian-origin H7N9 virus. The husband of a Shanghai woman who died as a result of H7N9 infection on April 3 was confirmed to be infected with the bird flu virus on April 11, and the human-to-human transmission can still not be fully excluded In this regard, the anti-viral therapy and vaccines are urgently needed, whereas more analyses will be greatly helpful for better understanding the H7N9 subtype viruses[3,4,5,6,7]. Kageyama’s results largely supported this model, whereas they drew a different conclusion that NA might be reassorted from www.nature.com/scientificreports mallard in Czech Republic[3] Both analyses reported an R294K mutation of NA in A/Shanghai/1/2013 to be resistant to Oseltamivir (Tamiflu)[3,6,14]. Our analyses are helpful for better understanding the new avian-origin H7N9 viruses, whereas the results can be useful for further experimental consideration
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