Enhanced mammalian transmissibility of seasonal influenza A/H1N1 viruses encoding an oseltamivir-resistant neuraminidase.

ABSTRACT: Between 2007 and 2009, oseltamivir resistance developed among seasonal influenza A/H1N1 (sH1N1) virus isolates at an exponential rate, without a corresponding increase in oseltamivir usage. We hypothesized that the oseltamivir-resistant neuraminidase (NA), in addition to being relatively insusceptible to the antiviral effect of oseltamivir, might confer an additional fitness advantage on these viruses by enhancing their transmission efficiency among humans. Here we demonstrate that an oseltamivir-resistant clinical isolate, an A/Brisbane/59/2007(H1N1)-like virus isolated in New York State in 2008, transmits more efficiently among guinea pigs than does a highly similar, contemporaneous oseltamivir-sensitive isolate. With reverse genetics reassortants and point mutants of the two clinical is

SUBMITTER: Bouvier NM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3416348 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature