Ebola Virus Glycoprotein with Increased Infectivity Dominated the 2013-2016 Epidemic.

ABSTRACT: The magnitude of the 2013-2016 Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic enabled an unprecedented number of viral mutations to occur over successive human-to-human transmission events, increasing the probability that adaptation to the human host occurred during the outbreak. We investigated one nonsynonymous mutation, Ebola virus (EBOV) glycoprotein (GP) mutant A82V, for its effect on viral infectivity. This mutation, located at the NPC1-binding site on EBOV GP, occurred early in the 2013-2016 outbreak and rose to high frequency. We found that GP-A82V had heightened ability to infect primate cells, including human dendritic cells. The increased infectivity was restricted to cells that have primate-specific NPC1 sequences at the EBOV interface, suggesting that this mutation was indeed an adaptatio

SUBMITTER: Diehl WE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5115602 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature