Genetic changes found in a distinct clade of Enterovirus D68 associated with paralysis during the 2014 outbreak

Yun Zhang, Jing Cao, Song Zhang, Alexandra J. Lee, Guangyu Sun, Christopher N. Larsen, Hongtao Zhao, Zhiping Gu, Sherry He, Edward B. Klem, Richard H. Scheuermann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) caused a severe respiratory illness outbreak in the United States in 2014. Reports of acute flaccidmyelitis (AFM)/paralysis (AFP) in several independent epidemiological clusters of children with detectable EV-D68 have raised concerns that genetic changes in EV-D68 could be causing increased disease severity and neurological symptoms. To explore the potential link between EV-D68 genetic variations and symptom changes, we performed a series of comparative genomic analyses of EV-D68 2014 outbreak isolate sequences using data and analytical tools in the Virus Pathogen Resource (ViPR; www.viprbrc.org). Our results suggest that (1) three distinct lineages of EV-D68 were co-circulating in 2013 and 2014; (2) isolates associated with AFM/AFP belong to a single phylogenetic subclade - B1; (3) themajority of isolates from the B1 subclade have 21 unique substitutions that distinguish them fromother isolates, including amino acid substitutions in the VP1, VP2, and VP3 capsid proteins and the 3D RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, and nucleotide substitutions in the internal ribosome entry sequence (IRES); (4) at 12 of these positions, B1 isolates carry the same residues observed at equivalent positions in paralysiscausing enteroviruses, including poliovirus, EV-D70 and EV-A71. Based on these results, we hypothesize that unique B1 substitutionsmay be responsible for the apparent increased incidence of neuropathology associated with the 2014 outbreak.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbervew015
JournalVirus Evolution
Volume2
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2016

Keywords

  • EV-D68
  • Enterovirus D68
  • Virus Pathogen Resource (ViPR)
  • comparative genomics
  • evolution
  • genotype-phenotype correlation
  • meta-CATS
  • phylogenetics
  • poliovirus

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Microbiology
  • Virology

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