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Viral evolution

Flu host evasion

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 15, page 4 (2014)Cite this article

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Flu vaccines primarily target the haemagglutinin viral surface glycoprotein. Previous work has identified 131 amino acid positions in five antigenic sites that may be targeted by antibodies, which suggested that antigenic drift involves many positions.

In this study, the authors used a ferret model and mutant viruses to examine the changes that occurred between the 11 antigenic clusters of viruses that evolved between 1968 and 2003. They found that mutations at only seven positions were involved, all of which flanked the receptor-binding site (RBS).

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References

  1. Koel, B. F. et al. Substitutions near the receptor binding site determine major antigenic change during influenza virus evolution. Science 342, 976–979 (2013)

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  1. Hannah Stower
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Stower, H. Flu host evasion. Nat Rev Genet 15, 4 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3639

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