AI Article Synopsis

  • The study investigates rotavirus infections in fully vaccinated children in Zambia, highlighting the emergence of genetically altered viruses that can evade immunity from existing vaccines.
  • Researchers conducted whole genome sequencing on diarrheal stool samples and identified several RVA strains, including mono and multiple reassortant strains, which exhibited differences in antigenic epitope compared to the common vaccine strain, Rotarix.
  • Results suggest that these genetic variations may help the virus escape neutralizing antibodies, indicating a need for improved vaccination strategies and the development of more effective universal rotavirus vaccines.

Article Abstract

The occurrence of rotavirus (RV) infection among vaccinated children in high-burden settings poses a threat to further disease burden reduction. Genetically altered viruses have the potential to evade both natural infection and vaccine-induced immune responses, leading to diarrheal diseases among vaccinated children. Studies characterizing RV strains responsible for breakthrough infections in resource-limited countries where RV-associated diarrheal diseases are endemic are limited. We aimed to characterize RV strains detected in fully vaccinated children residing in Zambia using next-generation sequencing. We conducted whole genome sequencing on Illumina MiSeq. Whole genome assembly was performed using Geneious Prime 2023.1.2. A total of 76 diarrheal stool specimens were screened for RV, and 4/76 (5.2%) were RV-positive. Whole genome analysis revealed RVA/Human-wt/ZMB/CIDRZ-RV2088/2020/P[4]-I2-R2-C2-M2-A2-N2-T2-E2-H2 and RVA/Human-wt/ZMB/CIDRZ-RV2106/2020/P[4]--R2-C2-M2-A2--T2--H2 strains were mono and multiple reassortant (exchanged genes in bold) respectively, whilst RVA/Human-wt/ZMB/CIDRZ-RV2150/2020/G12P[8]-I1-R1-C1-M1-A1-N1-T1-E1-H1 was a typical Wa-like strain. Comparison of VP7 and VP4 antigenic epitope of breakthrough strains and Rotarix strain revealed several amino acid differences. Variations in amino acids in antigenic epitope suggested they played a role in immune evasion of neutralizing antibodies elicited by vaccination. Findings from this study have the potential to inform national RV vaccination strategies and the design of highly efficacious universal RV vaccines.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10748035PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines11121759DOI Listing

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