Prediction of a common neutralizing epitope of H5N1 avian influenza virus by in silico molecular docking

The H5N1 avian influenza virus (AIV) has widely spread in Asia, Europe and Africa, making a large amount of economic loss. Recently, our research group has screened a common neutralizing mono- clonal antibody named 8H5, which can neutralize almost all H5 subtype AIV ever isolated so far. Obvi- ously, this monoclonal antibody would benefit for research and development of the universal AIV vac- cine and design of the drug against H5N1 AIV in high mutation rate. In this study, the homology mod- eling was applied to generate the 3D structure of 8H5 Fab fragment, and canonical structure method was used to define the specified loop conformation of CDR regions. The model was subjected to en- ergy minimization in cvff force field with Discovery module in Insight II program. The resulting model has correct stereochemistry as gauged from the Ramachandran plot calculation and good 3D-structure compatibility as assessed by interaction energy analysis, solvent accessible surface (SAS) analysis, and Profiles-3D approach. Furthermore, the 8H5 Fab model was subjected to docking with three H5 subtype hemagglutinin (HA) structures deposited in PDB (ID No: 1jsm, 2ibx and 2fk0) respectively. The result indicates that the three docked complexes share a common binding interface, but differ in bind- ing angle related with HA structure similarity between viral subtypes. In the light of the three HA inter- faces with structural homology analysis, the common neutralizing epitope on HA recognized by 8H5 consists of 9 incontinuous amino acid residues: Asp68, Asn72, Glu112, Lys113, Ile114, Pro118, Ser120, Tyr137, Tyr252 (numbered as for 1jsm sequence). The primary purpose of the present work is to provide some insight into structure and binding details of a common neutralizing epitope of H5N1 AIV, thereby aiding in the structure-based design of universal AIV vaccines and anti-virus therapeutic drugs.     

The mutation network for the hemagglutinin gene from the novel influenza A （H1N1 ） virus

A mutation network for the hemagglutinin gene （HA） of the novel type A （H1N1） influenza virus was constructed. Sequence homology analysis indicated that one HA sequence type from the viruses mainly isolated from Mexico was likely the original type in this epidemic. Based on the 658A and 1408T mutations in HA, the viruses evolving into this epidemic were divided into three categories, the Mexico, the transitional and the New York type. The three groups of viruses presented distinctive clustering features in their geographic distributions.     

Genome evolution of novel influenza A （H1N1 ） viruses in humans

The epidemic situation of A H1N1 flu arose in North America in April 2009, which rapidly expanded to three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, with the risk ranking up to 5. Until May 13th, the flu virus of A H1N1 had spread into 33 countries and regions, with a laboratory confirmed case number of 5728, including 61 deaths. Based on IRV and EpiFluDB database, 425 parts of A H1N1 flu virus sequence were achieved, followed by sequenced comparison and evolution analysis. The results showed that the current predominant A H1N1 flu virus was a kind of triple reassortment A flu virus： （i） HA, NA, MP, NP and NS originated from swine influenza virus; PB2 and PA originated from bird influenza virus; PB1 originated from human influenza virus. （ii） The origin of swine influenza virus could be subdivided as follows： HA, NP and NS originated from classic swine influenza virus of H1N1 subtype; NA and MP originated from bird origin swine influenza virus of H1N1 subtype. （iii） A H1N1 flu virus experienced no significant mutation during the epidemic spread, accompanied with no reassortment of the virus genome. In the paper, the region of the representative strains for sequence analysis （A/California/04/2009 （H1N1） and A/Mexico/4486/2009 （H1N1）） included USA and Mexico and was relatively wide, which suggested that the analysis results were convincing.     

Mutations in Hemagglutinin of a Novel Avian-Origin H7N9 Virus That Are Critical for Receptor Binding Specificity

A novel avian-origin H7N9 influenza virus was discovered in March in China and has caused a total of131 people infected including 39 deaths in China as of June 9, 2013. Adaptation of avian viruses to efficiently infect humans requires the viral hemagglutinin（HA） binding switches from avian to human type receptors with help of some mutations in HA. As such it is critical for pandemic assessment to discover these mutations as hallmarks of adaptation. To continue our previous study of this novel H7N9 virus, we identified two sets of mutations in HA. The first set of mutations are present in the current circulating strains of 2013 H7N9 in China, and the second set are potential mutations that were found when compared to the HAs of previous human H7 subtype. These two sets of mutations exhibited unique features. The first group of mutations, on average, enhanced the HA binding to human type receptors whereas reduced that to avian types. Further the reduction of avian binding was almost three times of the increase of the human binding. The second group increased the binding to both human and avian types.But the increase in human types was almost three times of that in the avian types. Though different in their way of changing the binding preference, these two sets of mutations both contained more mutations to decrease the avian binding and increase the human binding than those that did the opposite. Our research highlighted the pandemic potential of this novel virus by showing the important mutations that could potentially help it to adapt to human hosts. Our findings offered new insights into the current state of evolution of this virus, which might be helpful for the continued surveillance of the emergence of H7N9 strains having the ability of human-to-human transmission.     

H5N1型禽流感病毒HA基因在烟草中的表达

禽流感病毒H5N1是可以直接感染人类的甲型流感病毒,发展植物源口服疫苗是疫苗研究的方向之一．本研究通过农杆菌介导的方法将禽流感病毒H5N1的HA基因转化烟草．共获得38株潮霉素抗性植株,经PCR和Southern-blotting检测,目的基因已整合到转基因植株的基因组中．Western-dotting检测结果表明,目的基因在转基因烟草中得到表达,具有免疫原性,获得了能够表达HA基因的植物口服疫苗候选植株．     

无血清微载体培养MDCK细胞和甲型流感病毒H1N1的条件优化

 血清微载体培养MDCK细胞,并接种流感病毒H1N1,优化培养条件,为细胞流感疫苗的工艺研发奠定基础.采用不同的细胞接种量在50mL无血清微载体搅拌瓶中培养MDCK细胞,并接种甲型流感病毒H1N1,检测不同pH值和TPCK-胰酶含量的病毒培养液,不同病毒接种量,补加TPCK-胰酶,以及不同收毒时间对血凝效价的影响.以1.0×10⁵mL^-1的MDCK细胞数量接种到无血清微载体上,病毒培养液pH值为7.2~7.4范围内,TPCK-胰酶质量浓度为1.0μg/mL,接种后不补加胰酶,病毒接种量MOI=1.0,并在72h收获,最高血凝效价达到512.由此获得了在无血清为载体上培养MDCK细胞和甲型流感病毒H1N1的适宜条件.     

Orisin and future distribution of the new A （H 1N1 ） influenza virus emerging in North America in 2009

The origin of the new A （H1N1） influenza virus recently emerging in North America is a hot controversial topic of significance in disease control and risk assessment. Some experts claimed that it was an unusually mongrelized mix of human, avian and swine influenza viruses, while some others concluded that it was totally a simple re-assortment hybrid of two lineages of swine influenza viruses. Here the phylogenetic diversity of the viral PB1, PA and PB2 gene sequences using online web servers, and the results suggest that all the 8 genetic segments of the new virus were possibly from two lineages of swine influenza viruses, and one of the lineage was a mongrelized mix of human, avian and swine influenza viruses emerging in the world approximately 10 years ago. Considering the recent epidemiological trends of the new virus, we believe it will spread more widely in the world and persist long in human populations. It also could spread among swine populations. The future wide spreading of the new virus may coincide the disappearance of a subtype of previous human influenza A virus.     

H5N1亚型禽流感毒株A/Duck/HuBei/3/2005的分子特征及致病性研究

采用分子生物学方法,对1株2005年从湖北省某县分离获得的禽流感病毒株(A/Duck/HuBei/3/2005)进行全基因组序列测定.序列分析显示,该分离株为H5N1亚型.HA蛋白在HA1和HA2连接处,含有连续多碱性氨基酸模体(-RRKKR-).根据进化分析结果,分离株A/Duck/HuBei/3/2005的7个基因来源于2004～2005年湖南地区流行株(CK/HN/999/05,DK/HN303/04),但是PA基因片段发生了重排,来源于野禽.动物实验显示DK/HB/3/05对鸡和鸭均具有高致病性;对小鼠有较低致病性.     

H5N1亚型禽流感病毒血凝素基因的克隆与表达

 根据已知H5N1亚型禽流感病毒血凝素(HA)基因序列设计、合成克隆引物.自灭活的云南地方H5N1亚型病毒阳性临床组织样品中提取总RNA,反转录后采用高可信度DNA聚合酶(Pyobest^TMDNA Polymerase)扩增HA基因,采用Invitrogen定向表达系统(Champion^TMpET directional TOPO expression system)进行克隆表达,纯化获得N末端携带多聚组氨酸标签的重组HA,分子质量约78ku.采用阳性血清经免疫印迹及ELISA分析重组HA的免疫反应性,结果表明重组HA能与H5N1亚型病毒抗血清发生特异性结合,具有良好的免疫反应性.     

A/PR8/34(H1N1)NA基因包装信号对H5N1流感疫苗株NIBRG-14产量的影响

NIBRG-14是采用6+2策略制备的一株H5N1灭活疫苗株,其表面抗原HA和NA基因来自于A/Vietnam/1194/2004(H5N1,VN1194),内部基因来自于A/Puerto Rico/8/34(H1N1,PR8),已有研究表明该疫苗株在鸡胚中的产量不佳.本研究发现,在PR8背景下,VN1194NA基因被包装入重组病毒中的效率仅为正常包装量的38%～68%,因此有一部分重组病毒为不含有NAvRNA的缺陷型病毒粒子.本研究通过在VN1194NA基因完整编码区(CDS)的5′和3′两端嵌合PR8NA基因包装信号序列(vRNA3′末端41bp,5′末端67bp)的方法,使重组病毒中NAvRNA的包装效率得到完全恢复,并且病毒在鸡胚的生长滴度提高了10倍,血凝素HA含量提高了约2·7倍,从而为H5N1流感疫苗株的研制提供了新的思考方向.     

Stepwise prediction and statistical screening:B-cell epitopes on neuraminidase of human avian H_5N_1 virus

The B-cell epitopes of virus are associated with the antiviral drug and the vaccine screening. As the nucleotide sequences of neuraminidase (NA) of stain GD-01-06 were sequenced, we predicted the α-helix and β-fold structure and the indexes of the flexible regions of secondary structure of NA with methods of the Hydrophilicity plot by Kyte-Doolittle, the Surface probability plot by Emini and the Antigenic index by Jameson-Wolf, and then screened statistically the parameters to predict B-cell epitopes by the Hierarchical cluster and the Bivariate correlation and the quartiles with SPSS 13.0. The impact of variation of amino acids in NA on its epitopes was analyzed. The predictive results were evaluated by Wu’s Antigenic Index and SWISS-MODEL. We found that the most possible epitopes on NA were located within or nearby its N-terminal Nos. 120―137, 81―84, 408―415, 273―282, 429―432, 356―368, 46―55, 146―155, 341―350 and 198―209, which were the dominant regions of NA epitopes. Peptide 120―137 including the glycoprotein domain (NGT126―128) was first chosen as the B-cell epitopes on NA. NA in H5N1 strain isolated after 2003 lacked in No. 53 amino acid (I), resulting in an increase in the surface flexible region of NA in GD-01-06 and an enlargement to their epitope regions (VEP46―48→ VEPISNTNFL46―55). Conclusively, prediction of the B-cell epitopes on the NA based on multiple parameters is useful for researches on the molecular immunology and drug screening and immuno-prophylaxis. A deletion of No. 53 amino acid (I) in NA in strain GD-01-06 might increase its antigenicity.     

Subtyping of type A influenza by sequencing the variable regions of HA gene specifically amplified with RT-PCR

The outbreak of a novel influenza A(H1N1) virus across the globe poses a threat to human health.It is of paramount importance to develop a rapid,reliable and inexpensive diagnostic procedure.Based on the bioinformatic information from public database,primers specific for influenza A virus surface protein haemagglutinin(HA) of several subtypes(including H1,H2,H3,H5,H7 and H9) were designed.Primer-specific PCR products were subjected to sequencing for accurately distinguishing H1 and H3 subtypes from others.T...     

禽流感病毒H5N1血凝素基因和神经氨酸酶基因在真核酵母菌中的表达

目的克隆、表达和鉴定禽流感病毒H5N1血凝素基因（hemagglutinin,HA）和神经氨酸酶基因（neuramidinase,NA）序列,为制备抗体和基因工程疫苗打下基础。方法在成功克隆禽流感病毒H5N1全长HA、NA基因并测序的基础上,将部分基因序列克隆到表达载体pMET A上,构建了重组表达质粒pMET A/HA（49～1 587 bp）、pMET A/NA（121～1 200 bp）,电转化真核酵母菌pMAD16,甲醇诱导表达,利用Ni2＋亲和层析柱对重组蛋白进行纯化,并用Western Blotting和ELISA方法检测其抗原性。结果重组蛋白在酵母菌中可以高效表达,SDS-PAGE显示蛋白表达后形成了二聚体,蛋白纯度占总蛋白的95%以上,ELISA和Western Blotting实验证实,重组蛋白具有良好的抗原性。结论本研究成功克隆和表达了禽流感病毒H5N1 HA、NA基因序列,为禽流感病毒H5N1诊断试剂和疫苗的开发等进一步的研究提供了依据。     

禽流感病毒HSNl血凝素基因和神经氨酸酶基因在真核酵母菌中的表达毒

目的克隆、表达和鉴定禽流感病毒HSNI血凝素基因(hemaggludnin,HA)和神经氨酸酶基因(neuramidinase,NA)序列,为制备抗体和基因T程疫苗打下基础。方法在成功克隆禽流感病毒H5NI全长HA、NA基因并测序的基础上。将部分基因序列克隆到表达载体pMET A上,构建了重组表达质粒pMET A／HA(49一l 587 bp)、pMET A／NA(121—1 200 bp),电转化真核酵母菌pMADl6,甲醇诱导表达,利用Ni“亲和层析柱对重组蛋白进行纯化,并用Western Blotting和ELISA方法检测其抗原性。结果重组蛋白在酵母菌中可以高效表达,SDS—PAGE显示蛋白表达后形成了二聚体,蛋白纯度占总蛋白的95％以上,ELISA和Western Blotting实验证实,重组蛋白具有良好的抗原性。结论本研究成功克隆和表达了禽流感病毒H5NI HA、NA基因序列,为禽流感病毒H5N1诊断试剂和疫苗的开发等进一步的研究提供了依据。     

甲型H1N1流感在预防控制措施下的传播数学模型构建

从数学应用的角度,研究甲型H1N1流感的传播规律,将人群分为易感人群、病毒潜伏人群、发病人群、退出者人群四类. 分析了甲型H1N1流感在人群间的转化过程;日接触率和"聚集性突然爆发"事件被数学刻画,尝试性地构建了一个在预防控制阶段的传播数学模型.     

人源甲型H1N1流感HA基因进化特征分析

为了探究2009年3月至8月流感大爆发期间的人源甲型H1N1流感病毒的进化特征,提出了一种图形化表达病毒序列的方法,该方法将甲型H1N1流感病毒HA基因的符号序列数字化表达后,利用主成分分析（PCA）将高维数值序列的维度大幅度降低为二维,将低维的数值序列图形化表达在平面和空间中。在序列的图形化表达基础上,对2009年3月到8月收集的三千多个流感病毒样本做了新旧病毒的区分,筛选出了新型病毒菌株,并根据图形探究了甲型H1N1流感病毒在时间序列上的进化特征。     

KMB17细胞培养流感病毒的实验研究

 探讨了流感病毒在KMB₁₇细胞上培养的可行性.将3株不同型别的流感病毒(A/Wisconsin/67/2005H3N2,A/New Caledonia/20/1999 H1N1和B/Malaysia/2506/2004)分别接种于KMB₁₇细胞上,在无血清的条件下于不同pH值和不同胰酶浓度的维持液中35℃培养72 h后收获病毒,测定血凝效价.实验结果表明,所用的3个毒株中的H3N2亚型毒株(A/Wisconsin/67/2005 H3N2)血凝效价明显高于另外的H1N1亚型(A/NewCaledonia/20/1999 H1N1)和B型(B/Malaysia/2506/2004)毒株.因此认为KMB₁₇细胞可作为培养流感病毒的备选培养基质.