Characterizing avian influenza H5N1 viruses in Egypt

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15H05287
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 海外学術
• Research Field: Hygiene and public health
• Research Institution: Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine
• Principal Investigator: NAKAYA Takaaki 京都府立医科大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (80271633)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 開發 邦宏 大阪大学, 産業科学研究所, 特任准教授(常勤) (70419464)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): DAIDOJI Tomo 京都府立医科大学, 大学院医学研究科, 講師 (80432433)
• Research Collaborator: Ibrahim Madiha S. エジプト・ダマンフール大学, 獣医学部, 教授
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: インフルエンザ / H5N1 / エジプト / ペプチド核酸

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We reported that highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses, isolated from naturally infected pigeons in Egypt, have several unique mutations in viral polymerase genes. We also demonstrated that these mutations were responsible for changes in polymerase activity, providing new insights into the possible roles of pigeons in avian influenza virus transmission and evolution. We further determined hemagglutinin genetic diversification that occurred during H5N1 virus infection of primary human airway cells and characterized their phenotypes by recombinant variants. Our results revealed that a variety of minor HA variants emerged during a single infection in human airway cells, which altered their HA properties to more efficiently infect human cells.
In addition, we prepared a novel hairpin-type peptide nucleic acid, which has a sequence complementary to the N1-NA gene of influenza A virus, and demonstrated the sequence-dependent detection of N1 subtype viruses.

Free Research Field

ウイルス学