Department of Infectious Diseases, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan.
CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama, Japan.
J Virol. 2019 Feb 5;93(4). doi: 10.1128/JVI.01969-18. Print 2019 Feb 15.
The cocirculation of H5N1 and H9N2 avian influenza viruses in birds in Egypt provides reassortment opportunities between these two viruses. However, little is known about the emergence potential of reassortants derived from Egyptian H5N1 and H9N2 viruses and about the biological properties of such reassortants. To evaluate the potential public health risk of reassortants of these viruses, we used reverse genetics to generate the 63 possible reassortants derived from contemporary Egyptian H5N1 and H9N2 viruses, containing the H5N1 surface gene segments and combinations of the H5N1 and H9N2 internal gene segments, and analyzed their genetic compatibility, replication ability, and virulence in mice. Genes in the reassortants showed remarkably high compatibility. The replication of most reassortants was higher than the parental H5N1 virus in human cells. Six reassortants were thought to emerge in birds under neutral or positive selective pressure, and four of them had higher pathogenicity than the parental H5N1 and H9N2 viruses. Our results indicated that H5N1-H9N2 reassortants could be transmitted efficiently to mammals with significant public health risk if they emerge in Egypt, although the viruses might not emerge frequently in birds. Close interaction between avian influenza (AI) viruses and humans in Egypt appears to have resulted in many of the worldwide cases of human infections by both H5N1 and H9N2 AI viruses. Egypt is regarded as a hot spot of AI virus evolution. Although no natural reassortant of H5N1 and H9N2 AI viruses has been reported so far, their cocirculation in Egypt may allow emergence of reassortants that may present a significant public health risk. Using reverse genetics, we report here the first comprehensive data showing that H5N1-N9N2 reassortants have fairly high genetic compatibility and possibly higher pathogenicity in mammals, including humans, than the parental viruses. Our results provide insight into the emergence potential of avian H5N1-H9N2 reassortants that may pose a high public health risk.
在埃及,H5N1 和 H9N2 禽流感病毒在禽类中共同循环,为这两种病毒提供了重组机会。然而,对于源自埃及 H5N1 和 H9N2 病毒的重组体的出现潜力以及这些重组体的生物学特性,人们知之甚少。为了评估这些病毒的重组体可能带来的公共卫生风险,我们使用反向遗传学方法生成了源自当代埃及 H5N1 和 H9N2 病毒的 63 种可能的重组体,这些重组体包含 H5N1 表面基因片段和 H5N1 和 H9N2 内部基因片段的组合,并分析了它们在小鼠中的遗传兼容性、复制能力和毒力。重组体中的基因显示出极高的兼容性。大多数重组体在人源细胞中的复制能力高于亲本 H5N1 病毒。有 6 种重组体被认为在鸟类中受到中性或正选择压力的影响,其中 4 种重组体的致病性高于亲本 H5N1 和 H9N2 病毒。我们的结果表明,如果这些重组体在埃及出现,它们可以有效地传播给哺乳动物,并带来重大的公共卫生风险,尽管这些病毒在鸟类中可能不会频繁出现。埃及禽流感病毒与人类之间的密切相互作用似乎导致了全球范围内许多人感染 H5N1 和 H9N2 禽流感病毒的病例。埃及被认为是禽流感病毒进化的热点。尽管目前尚未报告 H5N1 和 H9N2 禽流感病毒的自然重组体,但它们在埃及的共同循环可能会导致可能带来重大公共卫生风险的重组体的出现。我们使用反向遗传学方法,首次全面报告了 H5N1-N9N2 重组体具有相当高的遗传兼容性,并且在哺乳动物(包括人类)中的致病性可能高于亲本病毒。我们的研究结果为可能带来高公共卫生风险的禽类 H5N1-H9N2 重组体的出现潜力提供了新的认识。