Substitution Arg140Gly in Hemagglutinin Reduced the Virulence of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus H7N1

• Published in: Viruses Vol. 13; no. 8; p. 1584
• Main Authors: Treshchalina, Anastasia, Postnikova, Yulia, Boravleva, Elizaveta, Gambaryan, Alexandra, Belyakova, Alla, Ishmukhametov, Aydar, Sadykova, Galina, Prilipov, Alexey, Lomakina, Natalia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 11.08.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Amino Acid Substitution; Amino acids; Animals; Arginine; Avian flu; Binding sites; Cell culture; Chickens - virology; Cloning; Drug resistance; Genomes; Glycine; Hemagglutinin Glycoproteins, Influenza Virus - chemistry; Hemagglutinin Glycoproteins, Influenza Virus - genetics; Hemagglutinins; highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Infections; Influenza; Influenza A Virus, H7N1 Subtype - chemistry; Influenza A Virus, H7N1 Subtype - genetics; Influenza A Virus, H7N1 Subtype - pathogenicity; Influenza in Birds; Laboratories; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mutation; Pathogenicity; pathogenicity factors; Poultry; Poultry Diseases - virology; Reversion; Serial Passage; Strains (organisms); Vaccines; Virology; Virulence; Viruses; Netherlands; Germany; Russia; highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses; pathogenicity factors
• ISSN: 1999-4915; 1999-4915
• DOI: 10.3390/v13081584

The H7 subtype of avian influenza viruses (AIV) stands out among other AIV. The H7 viruses circulate in ducks, poultry and equines and have repeatedly caused outbreaks of disease in humans. The laboratory strain A/chicken/Rostock/R0p/1934 (H7N1) (R0p), which was previously derived from the highly pathogenic strain A/FPV/Rostock/1934 (H7N1), was studied in this work to ascertain its biological property, genome stability and virulent changing mechanism. Several virus variants were obtained by serial passages in the chicken lungs. After 10 passages of this virus through the chicken lungs we obtained a much more pathogenic variant than the starting R0p. The study of intermediate passages showed a sharp increase in pathogenicity between the fifth and sixth passage. By cloning these variants, a pair of strains (R5p and R6p) was obtained, and the complete genomes of these strains were sequenced. Single amino acid substitution was revealed, namely reversion Gly140Arg in HA1. This amino acid is located at the head part of the hemagglutinin, adjacent to the receptor-binding site. In addition to the increased pathogenicity in chicken and mice, R6p differs from R5p in the shape of foci in cell culture and an increased affinity for a negatively charged receptor analogue, while maintaining a pattern of receptor-binding specificity and the pH of conformational change of HA.