Evolution and Transmission of Respiratory Syncytial Group A (RSV-A) Viruses in Guangdong, China 2008–2015

Abstract

Respiratory syncytial viruses (RSVs) including subgroups A (RSV-A) and B (RSV-B) are an important cause of acute respiratory tract infections worldwide. RSV-A include major epidemic strains. Fundamental questions concerning the evolution, persistence and transmission of RSV-A are critical for disease control and prevention, yet remain unanswered. In this study, we generated 64 complete G gene sequences of RSV-A strains collected between 2008 and 2015 in Guangdong, China. Phylogenetic analysis was undertaken by incorporating 572 publicly available RSV-A sequences. Current data indicate that genotypes GA1, GA4, and GA5 are endemic with limited epidemic activity. In contrast, the GA2 genotype which likely originated in 1980 has spread rapidly and caused epidemics worldwide. By analyzing GA2 genotype sequences across epidemic seasons within Guangdong, we find that RSV-A epidemics in Guangdong are caused by a combination of virus importation and local persistence, although the magnitude of the latter is likely overestimated due to infrequent sampling in other regions. Our results provide new insights into RSV-A evolution and transmission at global and local scales and highlights the rapid and wide spread of genotype GA2 compared to other genotypes. In order to control RSV transmission and outbreak, both local persistence and external introduction should be taken into account when designing optimal strategies.

Epidemiological characteristics and phylogenic analysis of human respiratory syncytial virus in patients with respiratory infections during 2011–2016 in southern China

“…Combined with the monthly distribution by site, we believe that the epidemic peaks in Zhu Jiang Hospital and Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases in 2014 reflected the prevalence of the new genotype. Although Zou et al (2016) also investigated the evolution and transmission of RSV-A in Guangdong in 2008-2015, the present study is the first to report the introduction, evolution, and transmission of the new ON1 genotype in Guangzhou, southern China. Further studies should be conducted to reveal the mechanisms behind the emergence of new genotypes and RSV epidemic.…”

Dominance of the ON1 Genotype of RSV-A and BA9 Genotype of RSV-B in Respiratory Cases from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

“…Phylogenic analysis showed that the sequences of the investigated samples in this study clustered with several lineages of the ON1 clusters ( Figure 2). Nine of the samples clustered with sequences from Saudi Arabia isolated in 2016, Lebanon (2015) and the USA (2013) and were close to isolates from Italy [6,9,25,[32][33][34]38,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51].…”

“…The deletion of CCAAAA nucleotides in all samples of RSV-B in this study caused the deletion of two PK amino acids, which was also reported in Saudi [6,16] and other countries in different isolation years, such as in Belgium with GenBank accession number AY751087, Saudi Arabia (JF714707, JF714708, KC719696), China (KT781360-82), the USA (KU950467/82), Jordan (KX655648), New Zealand (KX765906), the UK (KY249667), the Philippines (LC311362, LC311394), Japan (LC324679), Argentina (MG839547), Thailand (KC342333) and Australia (MH760729) [4,16,42,43,54,55]. Substitution at residue 254 T/I was found in 13 sample sequences from this study and was also found only in the Saudi samples in the 2016 study.…”

Prevalence of Common Respiratory Viral Infections and Identification of Adenovirus in Hospitalized Adults in Harbin, China 2014 to 2017

“…Adult populations with respiratory infections bear heavy burdens of hospitalization due to severe respiratory illness, especially for senior citizens ( Muller-Pebody et al, 2006 ). The constantly changing nature of viral pathogens has made the surveillance of these infections critical to public health authorities ( Zou et al, 2016 ; Li et al, 2017 ). The key indicators for viral infections from this report and recent published surveys in China has been summarized in Table 4 .…”

“…Phylogenetic history of several respiratory viruses isolated from China in recent years have been well established, including the influenza virus ( Wang et al, 2018 ; Yang et al, 2018 ), the PIV ( Pan et al, 2017 ) and the RSV ( Liu et al, 2014 ; Zou et al, 2016 ). The information about adenoviral evolutionary history in China was limited to outbreak reports and novel strains identification ( Lu et al, 2014 ; Li et al, 2018 ), leaving a gap for circulating stains among adult patients.…”