ABSTRACT
Ebola virus (EBOV) and Marburg virus (MARV) are causative agents of severe hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates in humans and non-human primates and there is currently no licensed vaccine or therapeutics.To date,there is no specific laboratory diagnostic test in China,while there is a national need to provide differential diagnosis during outbreaks and for instituting acceptable quarantine procedures.In this study,the TaqMan RT-PCR assays targeting the nucleoprotein genes of the Zaire Ebolavirus (ZEBOV) and MARV were developed and their sensitivities and specificities were investigated.Our results indicated that the assays were able to make reliable diagnosis over a wide range of virus copies from 103 to 109,corresponding to the threshold of a standard RNA transcript.The results showed that there were about 1010 RNA copies per milliliter of virus culture supernatant,equivalent to 10,000 RNA molecules per infectious virion,suggesting the presence of many non-infectious particles.These data indicated that the TaqMan RT-PCR assays developed in this study will be suitable for future surveillance and specific diagnosis of ZEBOV and MARV in China.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To analyze evolutionary characteristics of the matrix protein (M) and nucleoprotein (NP) genes of influenza virus A/H1N1 in 2009 pandemic. Methods: The M and NP genes of A/H1N1 viruses were downloaded from NCBI database. MEGA4.0 software and NJ method were used for sequence alignment, protein sequence alignment, and the phylogenetic tree construction. Meanwhile, Epi Info software was used to analyze the linear trend of evolutionary distance of the M and NP genes of human H1N1 strains isolated during 1918 to 2009. Results: The M and NP gene sequences were similar among the novel A/H1N1 viruses, but different from those of the previous influenza H1N1 viruses. Using reference sequences of human H1N1 strains isolated during 1918 to 2008, we found that changes in evolutionary distances of the M genes between novel A/H1N1 strains and each of the reference A/H1N1 strains increased with increasing year intervals (Ptrend = 0.001). Compared with the amino acid sequence of M2 protein of reference human A/H1N1 virus strains isolated during 1918 to 2008, the novel A/H1N1 viruses had the amino acid substitutions at 6 sites: 11, 43, 54, 57, 77, and 78. Compared with swine and avian A/H1N1, the novel A/H1N1 virus only had the amino acid substitutions at 43 and 77. Conclusion: The NP gene of novel A/H1N1 virus, which is routinely considered as a conserved sequence, is different from those of the previously isolated human H1N1 influenza viruses; the related mechanisms and consequences on viral activity remain to be elucidated. The substitution to threonine at 11 and 43 amino acids of M2 protein might contribute to amantadine resistance of the novel H1N1 virus pandemic in 2009.
ABSTRACT
The M and NP genes of H5N1 avian influenza virus (A/chicken/Hubei/489/2004) were amplified by RT-PCR from viral RNA,and cloned into pMD 18-T vector respectively.The expression plasmid containing the M gene (pHM6-m) or the NP gene (pHM6-np) was then constructed by inserting the M or NP gene into the pHM6 eukaryote expression vector; the constructed plasmid was then sequenced.32 BALB/c mice (6-week-old) were divided into four groups at random.Three groups of BALB/c mice were inoculated one time the intramuscular route with either 30 μg of plasmid pHM6-m,30 μg of plasmid pHM6-np or the mixture of plasmid pHM6-m (15 μg ) and pHM6-np(15 μg) respectively.A additional group of mice were injected with 100 μ1 PBS as controls.Two weeks later,all mice were challenged with homologous H5N1 avian influenza virus,and observed in the following 12 days.The survival rates of mice in the pHM6-m group,the pHM6-np group and mixed plasmids group were 62.5% ,25.0% and 50.0%,respectively.Results showed that effective protection could be provided by either pHM6-m or pHM6-np,but pHM6-m provided a better protective effect than pHM6-np.