Zeitschrift für Bioterrorismus und Bioverteidigung

Abstrakt

Infectivity of Pseudotyped Particles Pairing Hemagglutinin of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza a H5N1 Virus with Neuraminidases of The 2009 Pandemic H1N1 and a Seasonal H3N2

Fengwei Zhang, Jia Wu, Chunqiong Xu, Xiaojing Lin, Honglan Zhao, Jian Lu, Yonghui Zhang, Jianxin Lu, Xu Zhang, Ji Ma, Yuelong Shu, Yongliang Lou, Jimin Gao, Yue Wang

Reassortment of influenza viruses is capable of generating novel virus strains, the emergence of which may come to represent major public health issues. Hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) are the two major glycoproteins of influenza virus. These play a vital role in both the viral life cycle and evasion of the host immune response. Thus, predicting HA and NA reassortment, and characterizing the biology of HA and NA and of a novel virus are important for the control and prevention of influenza infection.

The HAs and NAs of three simultaneously circulating influenza viruses, a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1, the 2009 pandemic H1N1, and a seasonal H3N2, were evaluated by the pseudotyped particle (pp) system. Although the three HAs and NAs showed significant variation in their amino acid (aa) sequence, reassortment successfully generated infectious viral particles. Influenza H5 was demonstrated to have the ability to reassort with NAs from both the 2009 pandemic H1N1 and seasonal H3N2 viruses, resulting in highly infectious virions in both cases. All HAs in pps and wild-type viruses were predominantly HA0. Of the NAs, roughly half of the total N2 was present as a tetramer, 09N1 predominantly existed as a dimmer, and the NA of H5N1 was primarily monomeric. Thus, tetrameric, dimeric, and monomeric NAs were all functional and could fulfill their role in viral life cycle.