scholarly journals A single amino acid substitution in PB1 of pandemic H1N1 with A/Ann Arbor/6/60 master donor virus mutations as a novel live-attenuated influenza virus vaccine

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aitor Nogales ◽  
John Steel ◽  
Wen-Chun Liu ◽  
Anice C Lowen ◽  
Laura Rodriguez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Guinea Pigs ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
Protective Efficacy ◽  
Influenza Infection ◽  
The United States ◽  
Single Amino Acid ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Ann Arbor ◽  
The U.S

Influenza A viruses (IAV) remain emerging threats to human public health. Live-attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIV) are one of the most effective prophylactic options to prevent disease caused by influenza infections. However, licensed LAIV remain restricted for use in 2- to 49-year old healthy and non-pregnant people. Therefore, development of LAIV with increased safety, immunogenicity, and protective efficacy is highly desired. The United States (U.S.) licensed LAIV is based on the master donor virus (MDV) A/Ann Arbor/6/60 H2N2 backbone, which was generated by adaptation of the virus to growth at low temperatures. Introducing the genetic signature of the U.S. MDV into the backbone of other IAV strains resulted in varying levels of attenuation. While the U.S. MDV mutations conferred an attenuated phenotype to other IAV strains, the same amino acid changes did not significantly attenuate the pandemic A/California/04/09 H1N1 (pH1N1) strain. To attenuate pH1N1, we replaced the conserved leucine at position 319 with glutamine (L319Q) in PB1 and analyzed the in vitro and in vivo properties of pH1N1 viruses containing either PB1 L319Q alone or in combination with the U.S. MDV mutations using two animal models of influenza infection and transmission, ferrets and guinea pigs. Our results demonstrated that L319Q substitution in the pH1N1 PB1 alone or in combination with the mutations of the U.S. MDV resulted in reduced pathogenicity (ferrets) and transmission (guinea pigs), and an enhanced temperature sensitive phenotype. These results demonstrate the feasibility of generating an attenuated MDV based on the backbone of a contemporary pH1N1 IAV strain.

scholarly journals Increasing the Safety Profile of the Master Donor Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine

Pathogens ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Hilimire ◽  
Aitor Nogales ◽  
Kevin Chiem ◽  
Javier Ortego ◽  
Luis Martinez-Sobrido
Keyword(s):  
Influenza Vaccine ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
Protective Efficacy ◽  
Influenza Infection ◽  
Vaccination Campaign ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Antiviral Responses ◽  
Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine ◽  
Ann Arbor ◽  
Health Burdens

Seasonal influenza epidemics remain one of the largest public health burdens nowadays. The best and most effective strategy to date in preventing influenza infection is a worldwide vaccination campaign. Currently, two vaccines are available to the public for the treatment of influenza infection, the chemically Inactivated Influenza Vaccine (IIV) and the Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine (LAIV). However, the LAIV is not recommended for parts of the population, such as children under the age of two, immunocompromised individuals, the elderly, and pregnant adults. In order to improve the safety of the LAIV and make it available to more of the population, we sought to further attenuate the LAIV. In this study, we demonstrate that the influenza A virus (IAV) master donor virus (MDV) A/Ann Arbor/6/60 H2N2 LAIV can inhibit host gene expression using both the PA-X and NS1 proteins. Furthermore, we show that by removing PA-X, we can limit the replication of the MDV LAIV in a mouse model, while maintaining full protective efficacy. This work demonstrates a broadly applicable strategy of tuning the amount of host antiviral responses induced by the IAV MDV for the development of newer and safer LAIVs. Moreover, our results also demonstrate, for the first time, the feasibility of genetically manipulating the backbone of the IAV MDV to improve the efficacy of the current IAV LAIV.

scholarly journals Comparative Study of the Temperature Sensitive, Cold Adapted and Attenuated Mutations Present in the Master Donor Viruses of the Two Commercial Human Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccines

Viruses ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Rodriguez ◽  
Pilar Blanco-Lobo ◽  
Emma C. Reilly ◽  
Tatsuya Maehigashi ◽  
Aitor Nogales ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Influenza A ◽  
Viral Disease ◽  
The United States ◽  
Influenza Viruses ◽  
Influenza Vaccines ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Cold Adapted ◽  
Ann Arbor

Influenza viruses cause annual, seasonal infection across the globe. Vaccination represents the most effective strategy to prevent such infections and/or to reduce viral disease. Two major types of influenza vaccines are approved for human use: inactivated influenza vaccines (IIVs) and live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIVs). Two Master Donor Virus (MDV) backbones have been used to create LAIVs against influenza A virus (IAV): the United States (US) A/Ann Arbor/6/60 (AA) and the Russian A/Leningrad/134/17/57 (Len) H2N2 viruses. The mutations responsible for the temperature sensitive (ts), cold-adapted (ca) and attenuated (att) phenotypes of the two MDVs have been previously identified and genetically mapped. However, a direct comparison of the contribution of these residues to viral attenuation, immunogenicity and protection efficacy has not been conducted. Here, we compared the In vitro and in vivo phenotype of recombinant influenza A/Puerto Rico/8/34 H1N1 (PR8) viruses containing the ts, ca and att mutations of the US (PR8/AA) and the Russian (PR8/Len) MDVs. Our results show that PR8/Len is more attenuated in vivo than PR8/AA, although both viruses induced similar levels of humoral and cellular responses, and protection against homologous and heterologous viral challenges. Our findings support the feasibility of using a different virus backbone as MDV for the development of improved LAIVs for the prevention of IAV infections.

scholarly journals Reversion of Cold-Adapted Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine into a Pathogenic Virus

2016 ◽  
Vol 90 (19) ◽  
pp. 8454-8463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Zhou ◽  
Victoria A. Meliopoulos ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Xudong Lin ◽  
Karla M. Stucker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
Serial Passage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
H1n1 Pandemic ◽  
Cold Adapted ◽  
Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine ◽  
Ann Arbor ◽  
2009 H1n1

ABSTRACTThe only licensed live attenuated influenza A virus vaccines (LAIVs) in the United States (FluMist) are created using internal protein-coding gene segments from the cold-adapted temperature-sensitive master donor virus A/Ann Arbor/6/1960 and HA/NA gene segments from circulating viruses. During serial passage of A/Ann Arbor/6/1960 at low temperatures to select the desired attenuating phenotypes, multiple cold-adaptive mutations and temperature-sensitive mutations arose. A substantial amount of scientific and clinical evidence has proven that FluMist is safe and effective. Nevertheless, no study has been conducted specifically to determine if the attenuating temperature-sensitive phenotype can revert and, if so, the types of substitutions that will emerge (i.e., compensatory substitutions versus reversion of existing attenuating mutations). Serial passage of the monovalent FluMist 2009 H1N1 pandemic vaccine at increasing temperaturesin vitrogenerated a variant that replicated efficiently at higher temperatures. Sequencing of the variant identified seven nonsynonymous mutations, PB1-E51K, PB1-I171V, PA-N350K, PA-L366I, NP-N125Y, NP-V186I, and NS2-G63E. None occurred at positions previously reported to affect the temperature sensitivity of influenza A viruses. Synthetic genomics technology was used to synthesize the whole genome of the virus, and the roles of individual mutations were characterized by assessing their effects on RNA polymerase activity and virus replication kinetics at various temperatures. The revertant also regained virulence and caused significant disease in mice, with severity comparable to that caused by a wild-type 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus.IMPORTANCEThe live attenuated influenza vaccine FluMist has been proven safe and effective and is widely used in the United States. The phenotype and genotype of the vaccine virus are believed to be very stable, and mutants that cause disease in animals or humans have never been reported. By propagating the virus under well-controlled laboratory conditions, we found that the FluMist vaccine backbone could regain virulence to cause severe disease in mice. The identification of the responsible substitutions and elucidation of the underlying mechanisms provide unique insights into the attenuation of influenza virus, which is important to basic research on vaccines, attenuation reversion, and replication. In addition, this study suggests that the safety of LAIVs should be closely monitored after mass vaccination and that novel strategies to continue to improve LAIV vaccine safety should be investigated.

scholarly journals A Single Point Mutation, Asn16→Lys, Dictates the Temperature-Sensitivity of the Reovirus tsG453 Mutant

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 289
Author(s):  
Kathleen K. M. Glover ◽  
Danica M. Sutherland ◽  
Terence S. Dermody ◽  
Kevin M. Coombs
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Temperature Sensitivity ◽  
Reverse Genetics ◽  
Core Protein ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Single Amino Acid ◽  
Single Point Mutation ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Amino Acid Substitutions ◽  
Gene Encoding

Studies of conditionally lethal mutants can help delineate the structure-function relationships of biomolecules. Temperature-sensitive (ts) mammalian reovirus (MRV) mutants were isolated and characterized many years ago. Two of the most well-defined MRV ts mutants are tsC447, which contains mutations in the S2 gene encoding viral core protein σ2, and tsG453, which contains mutations in the S4 gene encoding major outer-capsid protein σ3. Because many MRV ts mutants, including both tsC447 and tsG453, encode multiple amino acid substitutions, the specific amino acid substitutions responsible for the ts phenotype are unknown. We used reverse genetics to recover recombinant reoviruses containing the single amino acid polymorphisms present in ts mutants tsC447 and tsG453 and assessed the recombinant viruses for temperature-sensitivity by efficiency-of-plating assays. Of the three amino acid substitutions in the tsG453 S4 gene, Asn16-Lys was solely responsible for the tsG453ts phenotype. Additionally, the mutant tsC447 Ala188-Val mutation did not induce a temperature-sensitive phenotype. This study is the first to employ reverse genetics to identify the dominant amino acid substitutions responsible for the tsC447 and tsG453 mutations and relate these substitutions to respective phenotypes. Further studies of other MRV ts mutants are warranted to define the sequence polymorphisms responsible for temperature sensitivity.

scholarly journals Characterization of an enhanced antigenic change in the pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza virus haemagglutinin

2014 ◽  
Vol 95 (5) ◽  
pp. 1033-1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blanca García-Barreno ◽  
Teresa Delgado ◽  
Sonia Benito ◽  
Inmaculada Casas ◽  
Francisco Pozo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Influenza Virus ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
Point Mutations ◽  
Antigenic Site ◽  
Single Amino Acid ◽  
Antigenic Structure ◽  
Human Antibody ◽  
2009 H1n1

Murine hybridomas producing neutralizing mAbs specific to the pandemic influenza virus A/California/07/2009 haemagglutinin (HA) were isolated. These antibodies recognized at least two different but overlapping new epitopes that were conserved in the HA of most Spanish pandemic isolates. However, one of these isolates (A/Extremadura/RR6530/2010) lacked reactivity with the mAbs and carried two unique mutations in the HA head (S88Y and K136N) that were required simultaneously to eliminate reactivity with the murine antibodies. This unusual requirement directly illustrates the phenomenon of enhanced antigenic change proposed previously for the accumulation of simultaneous amino acid substitutions at antigenic sites of the influenza A virus HA during virus evolution (Shih et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 104 , 6283–6288, 2007). The changes found in the A/Extremadura/RR6530/2010 HA were not found in escape mutants selected in vitro with one of the mAbs, which contained instead nearby single amino acid changes in the HA head. Thus, either single or double point mutations may similarly alter epitopes of the new antigenic site identified in this work in the 2009 H1N1 pandemic virus HA. Moreover, this site is relevant for the human antibody response, as shown by competition of mAbs and human post-infection sera for virus binding. The results are discussed in the context of the HA antigenic structure and challenges posed for identification of sequence changes with possible antigenic impact during virus surveillance.

Further characterization and determination of the single amino acid change in thetsI138reovirus thermosensitive mutant

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
pp. 589-595
Author(s):  
Guy Lemay ◽  
Martin Bisaillon
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Amino Acid Change ◽  
Genetic Alterations ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Single Amino Acid ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Nonpermissive Temperature ◽  
Gene Encoding ◽  
Viral Particles ◽  
Single Amino Acid Change

Many temperature-sensitive mutants have been isolated in early studies of mammalian reovirus. However, the biological properties and nature of the genetic alterations remain incompletely explored for most of these mutants. The mutation harbored by the tsI138 mutant was already assigned to the L3 gene encoding the λ1 protein. In the present study, this mutant was further studied as a possible tool to establish the role of the putative λ1 enzymatic activities in viral multiplication. It was observed that synthesis of viral proteins is only marginally reduced, while it was difficult to recover viral particles at the nonpermissive temperature. A single nucleotide substitution resulting in an amino acid change was found; the position of this amino acid is consistent with a probable defect in assembly of the inner capsid at the nonpermissive temperature.

scholarly journals Temperature-sensitive recombinant subtilisin protease variants that efficiently degrade molecular biology enzymes

2020 ◽  
Vol 367 (19) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa C Thompson ◽  
Bailey E McGuire ◽  
Mia S Frier ◽  
Max S G Legg ◽  
Tyler W Dyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Temperature Stability ◽  
Single Amino Acid ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Nickel Affinity Chromatography ◽  
Fold Reduction ◽  
Single Amino Acid Change ◽  
Secreted Proteases ◽  
Encoding Gene

ABSTRACT We used error-prone PCR to generate mutations in a subtilisin protease-encoding gene, and screened for recombinants that expressed temperature-sensitive (TS) variants. From the dozens of mutations that we detected in the recombinant genes we found that those mutations that affected aspartate-75 had the most profound effect on temperature stability. We thus focused our analysis on two variants of subtilisin C, the more heat-sensitive variant 24 (V24), with amino acid changes D75G, L234M and Q274P; and variant 25 (V25), with a single amino acid change, D75A. For V24 a two log-fold reduction in activity occurs in under 10 min at 50°C. For V25, a two log-fold reduction occurs at 60°C, a temperature that reduces the activity of the wild type enzyme by about 30%. The V24 variant fully inactivates enzymes commonly used in molecular biology research and in molecular diagnostics, and is stabilized against autolysis with propylene glycol concentrations of 10% or greater. The subtilisin variants are produced by a strain of Bacillus subtilis that lacks expression of its native secreted proteases, and the variants can be isolated from the supernatants using nickel affinity chromatography.

scholarly journals A suppressor of an RNA polymerase II mutation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes a subunit common to RNA polymerases I, II, and III.

1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 6123-6131 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Archambault ◽  
K T Schappert ◽  
J D Friesen
Keyword(s):  
Saccharomyces Cerevisiae ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Rna Polymerase ◽  
Rna Polymerase Ii ◽  
Essential Gene ◽  
Single Amino Acid ◽  
Temperature Sensitive ◽  
Gene Products ◽  
Gene Encoding ◽  
Temperature Sensitive Mutation

RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) is a complex multisubunit enzyme responsible for the synthesis of pre-mRNA in eucaryotes. The enzyme is made of two large subunits associated with at least eight smaller polypeptides, some of which are common to all three RNA polymerase species. We have initiated a genetic analysis of RNAPII by introducing mutations in RPO21, the gene encoding the largest subunit of RNAPII in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have used a yeast genomic library to isolate plasmids that can suppress a temperature-sensitive mutation in RPO21 (rpo21-4), with the goal of identifying gene products that interact with the largest subunit of RNAPII. We found that increased expression of wild-type RPO26, a single-copy, essential gene encoding a 155-amino-acid subunit common to RNAPI, RNAPII, and RNAPIII, suppressed the rpo21-4 temperature-sensitive mutation. Mutations were constructed in vitro that resulted in single amino acid changes in the carboxy-terminal portion of the RPO26 gene product. One temperature-sensitive mutation, as well as some mutations that did not by themselves generate a phenotype, were lethal in combination with rpo21-4. These results support the idea that the RPO26 and RPO21 gene products interact.

scholarly journals 2020 SARS-CoV-2 diversification in the United States: Establishing a pre-vaccination baseline

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam A Capoferri ◽  
Wei A Shao ◽  
Jon Spindler ◽  
John M Coffin ◽  
Jason W Rausch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Amino Acid ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
The United States ◽  
Viral Population ◽  
Phase 3 ◽  
Antibody Epitopes ◽  
The U.S

In 2020, SARS-CoV-2 spread across the United States (U.S.) in three phases distinguished by peaks in the numbers of infections and shifting geographical distribution. We investigated the viral genetic diversity in each phase using sequences publicly available prior to December 15th, 2020, when vaccination was initiated in the U.S. In Phase 1 (winter/spring), sequences were already dominated by the D614G Spike mutation and by Phase 3 (fall), genetic diversity of the viral population had tripled and at least 54 new amino acid changes had emerged at frequencies above 5%, several of which were within known antibody epitopes. These findings highlight the need to track the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the U.S. to ensure continued efficacy of vaccines and antiviral treatments.

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