TY - JOUR
T1 - High epidemic burden of RSV disease coinciding with genetic alterations causing amino acid substitutions in the RSV G-protein during the 2016/2017 season in The Netherlands
AU - Vos, Laura M.
AU - Oosterheert, Jan Jelrik
AU - Kuil, Sacha D.
AU - Viveen, Marco
AU - Bont, Louis J.
AU - Hoepelman, Andy I. M.
AU - Coenjaerts, Frank E. J.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Background: We found amino acid substitutions in the Gglycoprotein of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) A during the 2016/2017 epidemic in The Netherlands. Objectives: We evaluated whether these alterations led to increased RSV incidence and disease burden. Study design: We sequenced the gene encoding the G-protein of prospectively collected clinical specimens from secondary care adult patients testing positive for RSV during the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 epidemic RSV season. We evaluated associations between genetic, clinical and epidemiological data. Results: We included 49 RSV strains. In 2016/2017 28 strains were included, 20 community acquired RSV-A, 5 hospital acquired RSV-A and 3 community acquired RSV-B. In 2017/2018 21 strains were included, 8 community acquired RSV-A and 13 community acquired RSV-B. G-proteins of 10 out of the 20 community acquired 2016/2017 RSV-A strains shared a set of eight novel amino acid substitutions of which seven in mucin-like regions 1 and 2 and one in the heparin binding domain. This genetic variant was no longer detected among 2017/2018 RSV-A strains. Among patients carrying the novel RSV-A strain-type, 30% died. Conclusions: A set of eight amino acid substitutions was found in 50% of the 2016/2017 community acquired RSV-A G-proteins. This combination of substitutions was globally never observed before. The appearance of this new strain-type coincided with an increased RSV peak in The Netherlands and was associated with higher disease severity. The transient character of this epidemic strain-type suggests rapid clearance of this lineage in our study community.
AB - Background: We found amino acid substitutions in the Gglycoprotein of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) A during the 2016/2017 epidemic in The Netherlands. Objectives: We evaluated whether these alterations led to increased RSV incidence and disease burden. Study design: We sequenced the gene encoding the G-protein of prospectively collected clinical specimens from secondary care adult patients testing positive for RSV during the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 epidemic RSV season. We evaluated associations between genetic, clinical and epidemiological data. Results: We included 49 RSV strains. In 2016/2017 28 strains were included, 20 community acquired RSV-A, 5 hospital acquired RSV-A and 3 community acquired RSV-B. In 2017/2018 21 strains were included, 8 community acquired RSV-A and 13 community acquired RSV-B. G-proteins of 10 out of the 20 community acquired 2016/2017 RSV-A strains shared a set of eight novel amino acid substitutions of which seven in mucin-like regions 1 and 2 and one in the heparin binding domain. This genetic variant was no longer detected among 2017/2018 RSV-A strains. Among patients carrying the novel RSV-A strain-type, 30% died. Conclusions: A set of eight amino acid substitutions was found in 50% of the 2016/2017 community acquired RSV-A G-proteins. This combination of substitutions was globally never observed before. The appearance of this new strain-type coincided with an increased RSV peak in The Netherlands and was associated with higher disease severity. The transient character of this epidemic strain-type suggests rapid clearance of this lineage in our study community.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85060727532&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30708281
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcv.2019.01.007
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcv.2019.01.007
M3 - Article
C2 - 30708281
SN - 1386-6532
VL - 112
SP - 20
EP - 26
JO - Journal of clinical virology
JF - Journal of clinical virology
ER -