Increased prevalence of a rare mutant of pandemic H1N1 influenza virus in a Eurasian region

Abstract

In 2009, a novel swine-origin H1N1 influenza virus sparked an influenza pandemic. The emergence of mutations in the viral genome is therefore of ongoing concern. In this study, the hemagglutinin (HA) gene sequences of 3444 pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses reported to the GenBank database and the sequences of 48 pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses detected in the Chinese city of Qingdao were analyzed. Among the 3492 viruses, 101 carried a serine to proline substitution at position 128 (S128P) in the viral HA gene. All the 101 S128P mutants belonged to Clade 7 which has become dominant worldwide since the summer of 2009. Among the 3492 viruses, 1646 were collected before July 25, 2009, and none of these viruses carried the S128P mutation. Furthermore, after July 25, 2009, the prevalence of the S128P mutant was 33.56% (99/295) in a region of Eurasia including Russia, Mongolia, mainland China and South Korea, but only 0.11% (2/1846) in the rest of the world. The data suggested that the originally rare S128P mutant has become prevalent in the Eurasia region, indicating that the S128P mutant likely transmitted more efficiently than other strains of the virus. Therefore, it is of significance to observe whether the S128P mutant will be more dominant worldwide in the coming future and investigate the exact effects of the S128P mutation.