Mao Huawei, Yen Hui-Ling, Liu Yinping, Lau Yu-Lung, Malik Peiris J S, Tu Wenwei
Department of Paediatrics, The University of Hong Kong - Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen, China.
Virol Sin. 2014 Jun;29(3):170-5. doi: 10.1007/s12250-014-3473-3. Epub 2014 Jun 17.
A novel avian influenza A (H7N9) virus recently emerged in the Yangtze River delta and caused diseases, often severe, in over 130 people. This H7N9 virus appeared to infect humans with greater ease than previous avian influenza virus subtypes such as H5N1 and H9N2. While there are other potential explanations for this large number of human infections with an avian influenza virus, we investigated whether a lack of conserved T-cell epitopes between endemic H1N1 and H3N2 influenza viruses and the novel H7N9 virus contributes to this observation. Here we demonstrate that a number of T cell epitopes are conserved between endemic H1N1 and H3N2 viruses and H7N9 virus. Most of these conserved epitopes are from viral internal proteins. The extent of conservation between endemic human seasonal influenza and avian influenza H7N9 was comparable to that with the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1. Thus, the ease of inter-species transmission of H7N9 viruses (compared with avian H5N1 viruses) cannot be attributed to the lack of conservation of such T cell epitopes. On the contrary, our findings predict significant T-cell based cross-reactions in the human population to the novel H7N9 virus. Our findings also have implications for H7N9 virus vaccine design.
一种新型甲型H7N9禽流感病毒最近在长江三角洲地区出现，并导致130多人患病，且病情往往较为严重。这种H7N9病毒似乎比之前的甲型禽流感病毒亚型（如H5N1和H9N2）更容易感染人类。虽然对于禽流感病毒导致大量人类感染存在其他潜在解释，但我们调查了地方性H1N1和H3N2流感病毒与新型H7N9病毒之间缺乏保守的T细胞表位是否与这一现象有关。在此我们证明，地方性H1N1和H3N2病毒与H7N9病毒之间存在一些保守的T细胞表位。这些保守表位大多来自病毒内部蛋白。地方性人类季节性流感与禽流感H7N9之间的保守程度与高致病性禽流感H5N1相当。因此，H7N9病毒（与禽流感H5N1病毒相比）跨物种传播的易感性不能归因于此类T细胞表位缺乏保守性。相反，我们的研究结果预测人群中针对新型H7N9病毒会出现显著的基于T细胞的交叉反应。我们的研究结果对H7N9病毒疫苗设计也有启示。
