Nandy Ashesh, Basak Subhash C, Gute Brian D
University of Minnesota Duluth, Natural Resources Research Institute, 5013 Miller Trunk Highway, Duluth, Minnesota 55811, USA.
J Chem Inf Model. 2007 May-Jun;47(3):945-51. doi: 10.1021/ci600558w. Epub 2007 Apr 7.
The high degree of virulence and potential for development of a pandemic strain of the H5N1 avian flu has resulted in wide interest in characterization of the various genes of the H5N1 virus genome. We have considered for our analysis all 173 available complete sequences, as of February 2006, of the neuraminidase gene, which is the target of the most effective treatment regimen comprising the inhibitors oseltamivir and zanamivir. We have used a 2D graphical representation of the neuraminidase RNA sequences of H5N1 strains to identify a few distinct structural motifs. The H5N1 strains were split into two main classes: strains that were benign to human beings in the years up to 1996 and the period 1999-2002 and strains that were highly pathogenic to humans in the periods 1997 and 2003 to present. Comparisons with earlier H1N1 pandemic and epidemic strains have also been made to understand the current status of the gene. Our findings indicate that the base composition and distribution patterns are significantly different in the two periods, and this may be of interest in studying mutational changes in such viral genes.
H5N1禽流感病毒的高毒力以及出现大流行毒株的可能性引发了人们对该病毒基因组各基因特征研究的广泛兴趣。截至2006年2月，我们在分析中纳入了神经氨酸酶基因的全部173条可用完整序列，该基因是由抑制剂奥司他韦和扎那米韦组成的最有效治疗方案的作用靶点。我们利用H5N1毒株神经氨酸酶RNA序列的二维图形表示法来识别一些不同的结构基序。H5N1毒株被分为两大类：在1996年之前以及1999 - 2002年期间对人类无害的毒株，以及在1997年和2003年至今期间对人类具有高致病性的毒株。我们还与早期的H1N1大流行和流行毒株进行了比较，以了解该基因的现状。我们的研究结果表明，这两个时期的碱基组成和分布模式存在显著差异，这可能对研究此类病毒基因的突变变化具有重要意义。
