Hantaviruses are rodent-borne agents that cause hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome or hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in humans. The nucleocapsid protein (N) is relatively conserved among hantaviruses and highly immunogenic in both laboratory animals and humans, and it has been shown to induce efficient protective immunity in animal models. To investigate the ability of recombinant N (rN) from different hantaviruses to elicit cross-protection, we immunized bank voles with rN from Puumala (PUUV), Topografov (TOPV), Andes (ANDV), and Dobrava (DOBV) viruses and subsequently challenged them with PUUV. All animals immunized with PUUV and TOPV rN were completely protected. In the group immunized with DOBV rN, 7 of 10 animals were protected, while only 3 of 8 animals were protected in the group immunized with ANDV rN, which is more closely related to PUUV rN than DOBV rN. Humoral and cellular immune responses after rN immunization were also investigated. The highest cross-reactive humoral responses against PUUV antigen were detected in sera from ANDV rN-immunized animals, followed by those from TOPV rN-immunized animals, and only very low antibody cross-reactivity was observed in sera from DOBV rN-immunized animals. In proliferation assays, T lymphocytes from animals immunized with all heterologous rNs were as efficiently recalled in vitro by PUUV rN as were T lymphocytes from animals immunized with homologous protein. In summary, this study has shown that hantavirus N can elicit cross-protective immune responses against PUUV, and the results suggest a more important role for the cellular arm of the immune response than for the humoral arm in cross-protection elicited by rN.
Two suspected hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) cases from Bolivia were confirmed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. (ELISA)-ANDES was performed using N-Andes recombinant antigen serology in May and July 2000. Clot RNAs from the two patients were subjected to reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and sequencing. We describe two characterized cases of HPS. One was caused by infection with Bermejo virus and the other with Andes Nort viral lineage, both previously obtained from Oligoryzomys species. This is the first report of molecular identification of a human hantavirus associated with Bermejo virus.
Abstract. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) has been documented in the Salta and Jujuy provinces of northern Argentina since 1991 and 1997, respectively, accounting for almost 50% of the cases of HPS reported in this country. Andes (AND) virus, specifically the AND virus Nort lineage, was previously associated with human disease in this region. Genetic analysis of viral medium RNA segments obtained from 18 HPS cases showed the existence of three AND virus Nort sublineages co-circulating in these two provinces. They showed a nucleotide sequence diversity of up to 11.1% between the sublineages. The putative site of infection of one of these cases (Sal3/97) was determined. A 100% nucleotide sequence identity was observed between the viral sequence found in patient Sal3/97 and in two virus-positive Oligoryzomys chacoensis captured in the same place where the case lived and worked. These results indicated the putative site of infection and identified this rodent species as the source of infection.
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