Genetic analysis in patients infected with H5N1 avian influenza virus

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26670226
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Virology
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Nakayama Emi 大阪大学, 微生物病研究所, 准教授 (70324845)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: H5N1 / 感受性 / シアル酸転移酵素 / SNP

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Despite its high pathogenicity in infected human cases, the numbers of patients infected with H5N1 were still small. Most of H5N1 viruses isolated from infected patients display the same binding affinity to avian-type receptors as avian H5N1. These facts prompted us to raise one hypothesis that patients infected with H5N1 virus had elevated susceptibility to H5N1 compared with other individuals. The genomic DNA was extracted from 4 H5N1-infected but recovered patients and from 10 donors and the genetic analysis was performed at 6 genes of ST3GAL and 2 genes of ST6GAL by next generation sequencer. There are 32 SNPs over-represented in infected cases in ST3GAL1, 3, 6 and ST6GAL1 genes. If we hypothesize that the individuals with rare SNPs bear susceptibility to H5N1, SNPs in ST6GAL1, 3 and 6 genes were supposed to be candidate SNPs.

Free Research Field

ウイルス学