Molecular Characterization of the Viral Structural Genes of Human Rhinovirus A11 from Children Hospitalized with Lower Respiratory Tract Infection in Kunming

Background: The human rhinovirus (HRV) is a picornavirus that can cause a variety of respiratory diseases, including the aggravation of chronic respiratory diseases, such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and asthma. Although an increasing number of lower respiratory tract infection cases have been reported with HRV infection in Europe, few such cases have been reported in China. Methods: The complete genomic sequences of the HRV-A11 epidemic strains were amplified and obtained by segmented polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequence, and then the phylogenetic, nucleotide mutation, recombinant, and comparative analyses of amino acid mutations were performed. Results: Phylogenetic analyses showed that the epidemic strains from 3 rare cases of pneumonia belong to the HRV-A11 subgenotypes. All strains were highly similar to strains from the United States. No obvious homologous recombination signals were observed in the epidemic strains. There were 498 nucleotide and 47 amino acid mutations compared with the HRV-A11 prototype strain. Amino acid mutations were observed at the capsid protein region, P1a, RVA(2147-2155) ,and RVA97-114 epitopes of these clinical strains. Conclusions: We reported the first case of HRV-A11-associated lower respiratory tract infection in China. These mutations in the P1a, HRV A-specific CD8, and CD4 T-cell epitopes might provide a reference for virological surveillance and vaccine development. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases.

Automated summary

This article reports the first case of HRV-A11-associated lower respiratory tract infection in China. The nucleotide and amino acid mutations in these clinical strains were analyzed, and mutations in the capsid protein region and specific epitopes were found. The study results may provide references for virological surveillance and vaccine development.