Antigenic Patterns and Evolution of the Human Influenza A (H1N1) Virus.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Liu M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4585932 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:UnlabelledAlthough a large number of immune epitopes have been identified in the influenza A virus (IAV) hemagglutinin (HA) protein using various experimental systems, it is unclear which are involved in protective immunity to natural infection in humans. We developed a data mining approach analyzing natural H1N1 human isolates to identify HA protein regions that may be targeted by the human immune system and can predict the evolution of IAV. We identified 16 amino acid sites experiencing diversifying selection during the evolution of prepandemic seasonal H1N1 strains and found that 11 sites were located in experimentally determined B-cell/antibody (Ab) epitopes, including three distinct neutralizing Caton epitopes: Sa, Sb, and Ca2 [A. J. Caton, G. G. Brownlee, J. W. Yewdell, and W. Gerhard, Cell 31:417-427, 1982, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(82)90135-0]. We predicted that these diversified epitope regions would be the targets of mutation as the 2009 H1N1 pandemic (pH1N1) lineage evolves in response to the development of population-level protective immunity in humans. Using a chi-squared goodness-of-fit test, we identified 10 amino acid sites that significantly differed between the pH1N1 isolates and isolates from the recent 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 influenza seasons. Three of these sites were located in the same diversified B-cell/Ab epitope regions as identified in the analysis of prepandemic sequences, including Sa and Sb. As predicted, hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays using human sera from subjects vaccinated with the initial pH1N1 isolate demonstrated reduced reactivity against 2013-2014 isolates. Taken together, these results suggest that diversifying selection analysis can identify key immune epitopes responsible for protective immunity to influenza virus in humans and thereby predict virus evolution.ImportanceThe WHO estimates that approximately 5 to 10% of adults and 20 to 30% of children in the world are infected by influenza virus each year. While an adaptive immune response helps eliminate the virus following acute infection, the virus rapidly evolves to evade the established protective memory immune response, thus allowing for the regular seasonal cycles of influenza virus infection. The analytical approach described here, which combines an analysis of diversifying selection with an integration of immune epitope data, has allowed us to identify antigenic regions that contribute to protective immunity and are therefore the key targets of immune evasion by the virus. This information can be used to determine when sequence variations in seasonal influenza virus strains have affected regions responsible for protective immunity in order to decide when new vaccine formulations are warranted.
| S-EPMC4442545 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Since the 2017 Southern Hemisphere influenza season, the A(H1N1)pdm09-like virus recommended for use in the vaccine was changed because human, but not ferret, sera distinguish A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses isolated after 2013 from the previously circulating strains. An amino acid substitution, lysine to glutamine, at position 166 (H3 numbering) in the major antigenic site of HA was reported to be responsible for the antigenic drift. Here, we obtained two anti-A(H1N1)pdm09 HA monoclonal antibodies that failed to neutralize viruses isolated after 2013 from a vaccinated volunteer. Escape mutations were identified at position 129, 165, or 166 in the major antigenic site of HA. Competitive growth of the escape mutant viruses with the wild-type virus revealed that some escape mutants possessing an amino acid substitution other than K166Q showed superior growth to that of the wild-type virus. These results suggest that in addition to the K166Q mutation that occurred in epidemic strains, other HA mutations can confer resistance to antibodies that recognize the K166 area, leading to emergence of epidemic strains with such mutations.
| S-EPMC5735164 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The pandemic influenza virus (2009 H1N1) was recently introduced into the human population. The hemagglutinin (HA) gene of 2009 H1N1 is derived from "classical swine H1N1" virus, which likely shares a common ancestor with the human H1N1 virus that caused the pandemic in 1918, whose descendant viruses are still circulating in the human population with highly altered antigenicity of HA. However, information on the structural basis to compare the HA antigenicity among 2009 H1N1, the 1918 pandemic, and seasonal human H1N1 viruses has been lacking. By homology modeling of the HA structure, here we show that HAs of 2009 H1N1 and the 1918 pandemic virus share a significant number of amino acid residues in known antigenic sites, suggesting the existence of common epitopes for neutralizing antibodies cross-reactive to both HAs. It was noted that the early human H1N1 viruses isolated in the 1930s-1940s still harbored some of the original epitopes that are also found in 2009 H1N1. Interestingly, while 2009 H1N1 HA lacks the multiple N-glycosylations that have been found to be associated with an antigenic change of the human H1N1 virus during the early epidemic of this virus, 2009 H1N1 HA still retains unique three-codon motifs, some of which became N-glycosylation sites via a single nucleotide mutation in the human H1N1 virus. We thus hypothesize that the 2009 H1N1 HA antigenic sites involving the conserved amino acids will soon be targeted by antibody-mediated selection pressure in humans. Indeed, amino acid substitutions predicted here are occurring in the recent 2009 H1N1 variants. The present study suggests that antibodies elicited by natural infection with the 1918 pandemic or its early descendant viruses play a role in specific immunity against 2009 H1N1, and provides an insight into future likely antigenic changes in the evolutionary process of 2009 H1N1 in the human population.
| S-EPMC2797400 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The emergence of a novel A(H1N1) strain in 2009 was the first influenza pandemic of the genomic age, and unprecedented surveillance of the virus provides the opportunity to better understand the evolution of influenza. We examined changes in the nucleotide coding regions and the amino acid sequences of the hemagglutinin (HA), neuraminidase (NA), and nucleoprotein (NP) segments of the A(H1N1)pdm09 strain using publicly available data. We calculated the nucleotide and amino acid hamming distance from the vaccine strain A/California/07/2009 for each sequence. We also estimated Pepitope-a measure of antigenic diversity based on changes in the epitope regions-for each isolate. Finally, we compared our results to A(H3N2) strains collected over the same period. Our analysis found that the mean hamming distance for the HA protein of the A(H1N1)pdm09 strain increased from 3.6 (standard deviation [SD]: 1.3) in 2009 to 11.7 (SD: 1.0) in 2013, while the mean hamming distance in the coding region increased from 7.4 (SD: 2.2) in 2009 to 28.3 (SD: 2.1) in 2013. These trends are broadly similar to the rate of mutation in H3N2 over the same time period. However, in contrast to H3N2 strains, the rate of mutation accumulation has slowed in recent years. Our results are notable because, over the course of the study, mutation rates in H3N2 similar to that seen with A(H1N1)pdm09 led to the emergence of two antigenic drift variants. However, while there has been an H1N1 epidemic in North America this season, evidence to date indicates the vaccine is still effective, suggesting the epidemic is not due to the emergence of an antigenic drift variant. Our results suggest that more research is needed to understand how viral mutations are related to vaccine effectiveness so that future vaccine choices and development can be more predictive.
| S-EPMC3974778 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe human influenza viruses undergo rapid evolution (especially in hemagglutinin (HA), a glycoprotein on the surface of the virus), which enables the virus population to constantly evade the human immune system. Therefore, the vaccine has to be updated every year to stay effective. There is a need to characterize the evolution of influenza viruses for better selection of vaccine candidates and the prediction of pandemic strains. Studies have shown that the influenza hemagglutinin evolution is driven by the simultaneous mutations at antigenic sites. Here, we analyze simultaneous or co-occurring mutations in the HA protein of human influenza A/H3N2, A/H1N1 and B viruses to predict potential mutations, characterizing the antigenic evolution.MethodsWe obtain the rules of mutation co-occurrence using association rule mining after extracting HA1 sequences and detect co-mutation sites under strong selective pressure. Then we predict the potential drifts with specific mutations of the viruses based on the rules and compare the results with the "observed" mutations in different years.ResultsThe sites under frequent mutations are in antigenic regions (epitopes) or receptor binding sites.ConclusionsOur study demonstrates the co-occurring site mutations obtained by rule mining can capture the evolution of influenza viruses, and confirms that cooperative interactions among sites of HA1 protein drive the influenza antigenic evolution.
| S-EPMC5260787 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The swine-origin pandemic A(H1N1)2009 virus, A(H1N1)pdm09, is still circulating in parts of the human population. To monitor variants that may escape from vaccination specificity, antigenic characterization of circulating viruses is important. In this study, a hybridoma clone producing human monoclonal antibody against A(H1N1)pdm09, designated 5E4, was prepared using peripheral lymphocytes from a vaccinated volunteer. The 5E4 showed viral neutralization activity and inhibited hemagglutination. 5E4 escape mutants harbored amino acid substitutions (A189T and D190E) in the hemagglutinin (HA) protein, suggesting that 5E4 recognized the antigenic site Sb in the HA protein. To study the diversity of Sb in A(H1N1)pdm09, 58 viral isolates were obtained during the 2009/10 and 2010/11 winter seasons in Osaka, Japan. Hemagglutination-inhibition titers were significantly reduced against 5E4 in the 2010/11 compared with the 2009/10 samples. Viral neutralizing titers were also significantly decreased in the 2010/11 samples. By contrast, isolated samples reacted well to ferret anti-A(H1N1)pdm09 serum from both seasons. Nonsynonymous substitution rates revealed that the variant Sb and Ca2 sequences were being positively selected between 2009/10 and 2010/11. In 7,415 HA protein sequences derived from GenBank, variants in the antigenic sites Sa and Sb increased significantly worldwide from 2009 to 2013. These results indicate that the antigenic variants in Sb are likely to be in global circulation currently.
| S-EPMC3797713 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Annual seasonal influenza outbreaks are associated with high morbidity and mortality.To index and document evolutionary changes among influenza A H1N1 and H3N2 viruses isolated from Thailand during 2006-2009, using complete genome sequences.Nasopharyngeal aspirates were collected from patients diagnosed with respiratory illness in Thailand during 2006-2009. All samples were screened for Influenza A virus. A total of 13 H1N1 and 21 H3N2 were confirmed and whole genome sequenced for the evolutionary analysis using standard phylogenetic approaches.Phylogenetic analysis of HA revealed a clear diversification of seasonal from vaccine strain lineages. H3N2 seasonal clusters were closely related to the WHO recommended vaccine strains in each season. Most H1N1 isolates could be differentiated into 3 lineages. The A/Brisbane/59/2007 lineage, a vaccine strain for H1N1 since 2008, is closely related with the H1N1 subtypes circulating in 2009. HA sequences were conserved at the receptor-binding site. Amino acid variations in the antigenic site resulted in a possible N-linked glycosylation motif. Recent H3N2 isolates had higher genetic variations compared to H1N1 isolates. Most substitutions in the NP protein were clustered in the T-cell recognition domains.In this study we performed evolutionary genetic analysis of influenza A viruses in Thailand between 2006-2009. Although the current vaccine strain is efficient for controlling the circulating outbreak subtypes, surveillance is necessary to provide unambiguous information on emergent viruses. In summary, the findings of this study contribute the understanding of evolution in influenza A viruses in humans and is useful for routine surveillance and vaccine strain selection.
| S-EPMC2838802 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Compared to seasonal influenza viruses, the 2009 pandemic H1N1 (pH1N1) virus caused greater morbidity and mortality in children and young adults. People over 60 years of age showed a higher prevalence of cross-reactive pH1N1 antibodies, suggesting that they were previously exposed to an influenza virus or vaccine that was antigenically related to the pH1N1 virus. To define the basis for this cross-reactivity, ferrets were infected with H1N1 viruses of variable antigenic distance that circulated during different decades from the 1930s (Alaska/35), 1940s (Fort Monmouth/47), 1950s (Fort Warren/50), and 1990s (New Caledonia/99) and challenged with 2009 pH1N1 virus 6 weeks later. Ferrets primed with the homologous CA/09 or New Jersey/76 (NJ/76) virus served as a positive control, while the negative control was an influenza B virus that should not cross-protect against influenza A virus infection. Significant protection against challenge virus replication in the respiratory tract was observed in ferrets primed with AK/35, FM/47, and NJ/76; FW/50-primed ferrets showed reduced protection, and NC/99-primed ferrets were not protected. The hemagglutinins (HAs) of AK/35, FM/47, and FW/50 differ in the presence of glycosylation sites. We found that the loss of protective efficacy observed with FW/50 was associated with the presence of a specific glycosylation site. Our results suggest that changes in the HA occurred between 1947 and 1950, such that prior infection could no longer protect against 2009 pH1N1 infection. This provides a mechanistic understanding of the nature of serological cross-protection observed in people over 60 years of age during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.
| S-EPMC3421718 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 virus caused a global pandemic in 2009 and has circulated seasonally ever since. As the continual genetic evolution of hemagglutinin in this virus leads to antigenic drift, rapid identification of antigenic variants and characterization of the antigenic evolution are needed. In this study, we developed PREDAC-H1pdm, a model to predict antigenic relationships between H1N1pdm viruses and identify antigenic clusters for post-2009 pandemic H1N1 strains. Our model performed well in predicting antigenic variants, which was helpful in influenza surveillance. By mapping the antigenic clusters for H1N1pdm, we found that substitutions on the Sa epitope were common for H1N1pdm, whereas for the former seasonal H1N1, substitutions on the Sb epitope were more common in antigenic evolution. Additionally, the localized epidemic pattern of H1N1pdm was more obvious than that of the former seasonal H1N1, which could make vaccine recommendation more sophisticated. Overall, the antigenic relationship prediction model we developed provides a rapid determination method for identifying antigenic variants, and the further analysis of evolutionary and epidemic characteristics can facilitate vaccine recommendations and influenza surveillance for H1N1pdm.
| S-EPMC10436056 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Surveillance data indicate that most circulating A(H1N1)pdm09 influenza viruses have remained antigenically similar since they emerged in humans in 2009. However, antigenic drift is likely to occur in the future in response to increasing population immunity induced by infection or vaccination. In this study, sequential passaging of A(H1N1)pdm09 virus by contact transmission through two independent series of suboptimally vaccinated ferrets resulted in selection of variant viruses with an amino acid substitution (N156K, H1 numbering without signal peptide; N159K, H3 numbering without signal peptide; N173K, H1 numbering from first methionine) in a known antigenic site of the viral HA. The N156K HA variant replicated and transmitted efficiently between naïve ferrets and outgrew wildtype virus in vivo in ferrets in the presence and absence of immune pressure. In vitro, in a range of cell culture systems, the N156K variant rapidly adapted, acquiring additional mutations in the viral HA that also potentially affected antigenic properties. The N156K escape mutant was antigenically distinct from wildtype virus as shown by binding of HA-specific antibodies. Glycan binding assays demonstrated the N156K escape mutant had altered receptor binding preferences compared to wildtype virus, which was supported by computational modeling predictions. The N156K substitution, and culture adaptations, have been detected in human A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses with N156K preferentially reported in sequences from original clinical samples rather than cultured isolates. This study demonstrates the ability of the A(H1N1)pdm09 virus to undergo rapid antigenic change to evade a low level vaccine response, while remaining fit in a ferret transmission model of immunization and infection. Furthermore, the potential changes in receptor binding properties that accompany antigenic changes highlight the importance of routine characterization of clinical samples in human A(H1N1)pdm09 influenza surveillance.
| S-EPMC3649996 | biostudies-literature