HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplementary figures Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ahmed, A. A. Articles by Bertolotti-Ciarlet, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Ahmed, A. A. Articles by Bertolotti-Ciarlet, A. Agricola Articles by Ahmed, A. A. Articles by Bertolotti-Ciarlet, A.

Presence of broadly reactive and group-specific neutralizing epitopes on newly described isolates of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus

¹ Department of Microbiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
² Virology Division, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA
³ Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Correspondence
Andrea Bertolotti-Ciarlet
aciarlet{at}mail.med.upenn.edu

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), a member of the genus Nairovirus of the family Bunyaviridae, causes severe disease in humans with high rates of mortality. The virus has a tripartite genome composed of a small (S), a medium (M) and a large (L) RNA segment; the M segment encodes the two viral glycoproteins, G_N and G_C. Whilst relatively few full-length M segment sequences are available, it is apparent that both G_N and G_C may exhibit significant sequence diversity. It is unknown whether considerable antigenic differences exist between divergent CCHFV strains, or whether there are conserved neutralizing epitopes. The M segments derived from viral isolates of a human case of CCHF in South Africa (SPU 41/84), an infected tick (Hyalomma marginatum) in South Africa (SPU 128/81), a human case in Congo (UG 3010), an infected individual in Uzbekistan (U2-2-002) and an infected tick (Hyalomma asiaticum) in China (Hy13) were sequenced fully, and the glycoproteins were expressed. These novel sequences showed high variability in the N-terminal region of G_N and more modest differences in the remainder of G_N and in G_C. Phylogenetic analyses placed these newly identified strains in three of the four previously described M segment groups. Studies with a panel of mAbs specific to G_N and G_C indicated that there were significant antigenic differences between the M segment groups, although several neutralizing epitopes in both G_N and G_C were conserved among all strains examined. Thus, the genetic diversity exhibited by CCHFV strains results in significant antigenic differences that will need to be taken into consideration for vaccine development.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the sequences described in this paper are AY900141–AY900145.

Supplementary figures are available in JGV Online.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. A. Altamura, A. Bertolotti-Ciarlet, J. Teigler, J. Paragas, C. S. Schmaljohn, and R. W. Doms Identification of a Novel C-Terminal Cleavage of Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus PreGN That Leads to Generation of an NSM Protein J. Virol., June 15, 2007; 81(12): 6632 - 6642. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				V. M. Deyde, M. L. Khristova, P. E. Rollin, T. G. Ksiazek, and S. T. Nichol Crimean-congo hemorrhagic Fever virus genomics and global diversity. J. Virol., September 1, 2006; 80(17): 8834 - 8842. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]