Genetic changes found in a distinct clade of Enterovirus D68 associated with paralysis during the 2014 outbreak.

ABSTRACT: Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) caused a severe respiratory illness outbreak in the United States in 2014. Reports of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM)/paralysis (AFP) in several independent epidemiological clusters of children with detectable EV-D68 have raised concerns that genetic changes in EV-D68 could be causing increased disease severity and neurological symptoms. To explore the potential link between EV-D68 genetic variations and symptom changes, we performed a series of comparative genomic analyses of EV-D68 2014 outbreak isolate sequences using data and analytical tools in the Virus Pathogen Resource (ViPR; www.viprbrc.org). Our results suggest that (1) three distinct lineages of EV-D68 were co-circulating in 2013 and 2014; (2) isolates associated with AFM/AFP belong to a single phylogenetic

SUBMITTER: Zhang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5426007 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature