Molecular characterization of neuraminidase surface proteins of influenzavirus b isolates from Egypt, 1999-2008

Abstract

Influenzaviruses affect all of the world's population, posing a threat to at-risk populations such as the elderly, children, pregnant women, as well as those with underlying respiratory ailments. Vaccination is an effective tool to prevent infection from influenzaviruses. However, due to the high mutation rate of influenzaviruses caused by antigenic drift and shift, vaccines must be developed every year in an effort to control epidemics. The mutations that effect the vaccine development occur mainly in the virus' surface proteins: hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. It is important to study the sites and rates of mutation of influenzaviruses to understand how the virus is evolving.

Influenzaviruses have been isolated from samples collected through surveillance projects in Egypt over the last ten years at NAMRU-3. Frequently these viruses are sequenced to analyze three important genes, the 2 surface proteins HA (hemagglutinin) and NA (neuraminidase) and M (Matrix) as they provide the vast majority of information that informs vaccine development and anti-viral treatment. This study will focus on sequencing and analysis of the neuraminidase gene of influenzavirus B isolates. This data will also allow us to examine the circulation patterns of influenzavirus B and allow us to compare it to the data acquired from a similar HA sequencing effort.