Virus Evol . Identification of H3N2 NA and PB1-F2 genetic variants and their association with disease symptoms during the 2014-15 influenza season

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Virus Evol


. 2021 Jun 4;7(1):veab047.
doi: 10.1093/ve/veab047. eCollection 2021 Jan.
Identification of H3N2 NA and PB1-F2 genetic variants and their association with disease symptoms during the 2014-15 influenza season


Deena R Blumenkrantz ¹ , Thomas Mehoke ² , Kathryn Shaw-Saliba ^{1 3} , Harrison Powell ¹ , Nicholas Wohlgemuth ¹ , Hsuan Liu ¹ , Elizabeth Macias ⁴ , Jared Evans ² , Mitra Lewis ⁵ , Rebecca Medina ⁵ , Justin Hardick ⁵ , Lauren M Sauer ⁵ , Andrea Dugas ⁵ , Anna DuVal ³ , Andrew P Lane ⁶ , Charlotte Gaydos ^{3 5} , Richard Rothman ^{3 5} , Peter Thielen ² , Andrew Pekosz ¹



Affiliations

• PMID: 34131512
• PMCID: PMC8197029
• DOI: 10.1093/ve/veab047

Free PMC article

Abstract

The 2014-15 influenza season saw the emergence of an H3N2 antigenic drift variant that formed the 3C.2a HA clade. Whole viral genomes were sequenced from nasopharyngeal swabs of ninety-four patients with confirmed influenza A virus infection and primary human nasal epithelial cell cultures used to efficiently isolate H3N2 viruses. The isolates were classified by HA clade and the presence of a new set of co-selected mutations in NA (a glycosylation site, NAg+) and PB1-F2 (H75P). The NA and PB1-F2 mutations were present in a subset of clade 3C.2a viruses (NAg+F2P), which dominated during the subsequent influenza seasons. In human nasal epithelial cell cultures, a virus with the novel NAg+F2P genotype replicated less well compared with a virus with the parental genotype. Retrospective analyses of clinical data showed that NAg+F2P genotype viruses were associated with increased cough and shortness of breath in infected patients.

Keywords: H3N2; NA; PB1-F2; antigenic drift; human; influenza; symptoms.