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    Home > Active Ingredient News > Infection > PNAS ​Professor Cheng Gong's team from Tsinghua University reveals the mechanism of adaptive evolution leading to the epidemic of Zika virus

    PNAS ​Professor Cheng Gong's team from Tsinghua University reveals the mechanism of adaptive evolution leading to the epidemic of Zika virus

    • Last Update: 2021-10-22
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    iNature Zika virus is a typical mosquito-borne virus, which is mainly carried and spread by Aedes mosquitoes
    .

    From 2015 to 2017, the Zika virus caused a large-scale global outbreak, rapidly spreading from South America to more than 70 countries and regions around the world, causing millions of people to be infected
    .

    On October 8, 2021, Professor Cheng Gong’s team from Tsinghua University School of Medicine published a research paper entitled "A mutation-mediated evolutionary adaptation of Zikavirus in mosquito and mammalian host" in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
    The study found that Zika The mutation at position 106 of the viral capsid protein from threonine (T) to alanine (A) can greatly enhance the ability of Zika virus to infect Aedes aegypti and mammalian hosts, providing a further understanding of the Zika virus outbreak The scientific basis
    .

     Zika virus is a typical mosquito-borne virus, which is mainly carried and spread by Aedes mosquitoes
    .

    From 2015 to 2017, the Zika virus caused a large-scale global outbreak, rapidly spreading from South America to more than 70 countries and regions around the world, causing millions of people to be infected
    .

    Zika virus is related to dengue virus.
    Symptoms caused by infection in humans are similar to dengue fever, including fever, joint pain, headache and rash
    .

    However, in recent years, clinical and epidemiological studies have shown that some serious neurological symptoms, including Guillain Barre syndrome and neonatal microcephaly, are related to Zika virus infection
    .

    Therefore, the worldwide spread of Zika virus infection in recent years is considered a serious public health threat
    .

    Mosquito-borne viruses circulate between the host and the mosquito vector.
    The transmission efficiency of the virus in nature depends on the ability of the virus to adapt to the host
    .

    Previous studies have shown that the process of viruses adapting to the host is achieved by continuously acquiring mutations that are conducive to virus infection and transmission
    .

    In this study, through the analysis of branching system development, seven stable amino acid site mutations were identified in the outbreak strains.
    Reverse genetics methods were used to obtain single-point mutation viruses and compare their infection and host infections in mosquitoes and hosts.
    Communication ability
    .

    Studies have found that the threonine (T) to alanine (A) mutation at residue 106 of the Zika virus capsid protein (Capsid) promotes its infection in mosquitoes, human immune cells and mouse models
    .

    In the "vector-host-vector" transmission cycle model, the mutant also showed higher transmission efficiency and stronger infection ability
    .

    Further mechanism studies have shown that this point mutation can increase the cleavage efficiency of the Zika virus NS2B-NS3 protease on the capsid protein, promote the assembly of infectious virus particles, and lead to the ability of the mutant Zika virus to infect mosquitoes and mammalian hosts.
    Significant increase (Figure 1)
    .

    This study shows that the adaptive evolution of Zika virus is one of the important factors that promote the outbreak of Zika virus
    .

    Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the mechanism of capsid protein T106A mutation promoting Zika virus infection and transmission.
    Professor Cheng Gong, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, is the corresponding author of this paper, and doctoral student Yu Qian is the first author
    .

    From Professor Pei-Yong Shi of the University of Texas Medical Department (UTMB), Professor Wang Penghua from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Professor Wang Jinglin from Yunnan Academy of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences, Shan Chao researcher, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University School of Medicine Assistant researcher Dr.
    Yibin Zhu and doctoral student Ma Enhao are the co-authors of this thesis
    .

    The research was jointly funded by the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, the National Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Outstanding Youth Fund of the National Natural Science Commission, the Key Project, the Spring Breeze Fund of Tsinghua University, the "Three Projects" of Shenzhen and the "Chenggong Expert Workstation" of Yunnan Province
    .

     Article link: https://
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