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Gostimskaya I. CRISPR-Cas9: A History of Its Discovery and Ethical Considerations of Its Use in Genome Editing. BIOCHEMISTRY. BIOKHIMIIA 2022; 87:777-788. [PMID: 36171658 PMCID: PMC9377665 DOI: 10.1134/s0006297922080090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Revised: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 07/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
The development of a method for genome editing based on CRISPR-Cas9 technology was awarded The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020, less than a decade after the discovery of all principal molecular components of the system. For the first time in history a Nobel prize was awarded to two women, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, who made key discoveries in the field of DNA manipulation with the CRISPR-Cas9 system, so-called "genetic scissors". It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the technique as it enables one not only to manipulate genomes of model organisms in scientific experiments, and modify characteristics of important crops and animals, but also has the potential of introducing revolutionary changes in medicine, especially in treatment of genetic diseases. The original biological function of CRISPR-Cas9 system is the protection of prokaryotes from mobile genetic elements, in particular viruses. Currently, CRISPR-Cas9 and related technologies have been successfully used to cure life-threatening diseases, make coronavirus detection tests, and even to modify human embryo cells with the consequent birth of babies carrying the introduced modifications. This intervention with human germplasm cells resulted in wide disapproval in the scientific community due to ethical concerns, and calls for a moratorium on inheritable genomic manipulations. This review focuses on the history of the discovery of the CRISPR-Cas9 system with some aspects of its current applications, including ethical concerns about its use in humans.
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2
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Forghani M, Khachay M. Convolutional Neural Network Based Approach to in Silico Non-Anticipating Prediction of Antigenic Distance for Influenza Virus. Viruses 2020; 12:E1019. [PMID: 32932748 PMCID: PMC7551508 DOI: 10.3390/v12091019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2020] [Revised: 09/06/2020] [Accepted: 09/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Evaluation of the antigenic similarity degree between the strains of the influenza virus is highly important for vaccine production. The conventional method used to measure such a degree is related to performing the immunological assays of hemagglutinin inhibition. Namely, the antigenic distance between two strains is calculated on the basis of HI assays. Usually, such distances are visualized by using some kind of antigenic cartography method. The known drawback of the HI assay is that it is rather time-consuming and expensive. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for antigenic distance approximation based on deep learning in the feature spaces induced by hemagglutinin protein sequences and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). To apply a CNN to compare the protein sequences, we utilize the encoding based on the physical and chemical characteristics of amino acids. By varying (hyper)parameters of the CNN architecture design, we find the most robust network. Further, we provide insight into the relationship between approximated antigenic distance and antigenicity by evaluating the network on the HI assay database for the H1N1 subtype. The results indicate that the best-trained network gives a high-precision approximation for the ground-truth antigenic distances, and can be used as a good exploratory tool in practical tasks.
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3
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Bonomo ME, Deem MW. Reply to Xu and Ye: On the Sufficiency of the Pepitope Method. Clin Infect Dis 2019; 68:347. [PMID: 29986011 DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciy561] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2018] [Accepted: 07/06/2018] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Melia E Bonomo
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas.,Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, Texas
| | - Michael W Deem
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas.,Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, Texas.,Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas
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4
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Bonomo ME, Kim RY, Deem MW. Modular epitope binding predicts influenza quasispecies dominance and vaccine effectiveness: Application to 2018/19 season. Vaccine 2019; 37:3154-3158. [PMID: 31060950 DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.03.068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2019] [Revised: 03/11/2019] [Accepted: 03/28/2019] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
The modular binding sites on the influenza A(H3N2) hemagglutinin protein are under significant pressure to acquire mutations in order to evade human antibody recognition. Analysis of these hemagglutinin epitopes in the strains circulating during 2017/18 and early 2018/19 identified the emergence of a new antigenic cluster that has grown from 4% of circulating strains to 11%. We regressed our module-based antigenic distance, pepitope, with A(H3N2) vaccine effectiveness from recent studies conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (r2 = 0.92), and we used this to estimate that the 2018/19 vaccines will protect against most circulating A(H3N2) strains. The pEpitope model is useful for A(H3N2) influenza vaccine virus selection and development, and it has the potential to aid national or regional regulatory authorities in making geographically localized decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melia E Bonomo
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, TX 77005, USA; Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
| | - Rachel Y Kim
- Weiss School of Natural Sciences, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
| | - Michael W Deem
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, TX 77005, USA; Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, TX 77005, USA; Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, 6100 Main St, Houston, TX 77005, USA.
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5
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Agor JK, Özaltın OY. Models for predicting the evolution of influenza to inform vaccine strain selection. Hum Vaccin Immunother 2018; 14:678-683. [PMID: 29337643 DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2017.1423152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Influenza vaccine composition is reviewed before every flu season because influenza viruses constantly evolve through antigenic changes. To inform vaccine updates, laboratories that contribute to the World Health Organization Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System monitor the antigenic phenotypes of circulating viruses all year round. Vaccine strains are selected in anticipation of the upcoming influenza season to allow adequate time for production. A mismatch between vaccine strains and predominant strains in the flu season can significantly reduce vaccine effectiveness. Models for predicting the evolution of influenza based on the relationship of genetic mutations and antigenic characteristics of circulating viruses may inform vaccine strain selection decisions. We review the literature on state-of-the-art tools and prediction methodologies utilized in modeling the evolution of influenza to inform vaccine strain selection. We then discuss areas that are open for improvement and need further research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph K Agor
- a Operations Research, North Carolina State University , Raleigh , NC , USA
| | - Osman Y Özaltın
- b Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering , North Carolina State University , Raleigh , NC , USA
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6
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Klingen TR, Reimering S, Guzmán CA, McHardy AC. In Silico Vaccine Strain Prediction for Human Influenza Viruses. Trends Microbiol 2017; 26:119-131. [PMID: 29032900 DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2017.09.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2017] [Revised: 07/21/2017] [Accepted: 09/06/2017] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
Vaccines preventing seasonal influenza infections save many lives every year; however, due to rapid viral evolution, they have to be updated frequently to remain effective. To identify appropriate vaccine strains, the World Health Organization (WHO) operates a global program that continually generates and interprets surveillance data. Over the past decade, sophisticated computational techniques, drawing from multiple theoretical disciplines, have been developed that predict viral lineages rising to predominance, assess their suitability as vaccine strains, link genetic to antigenic alterations, as well as integrate and visualize genetic, epidemiological, structural, and antigenic data. These could form the basis of an objective and reproducible vaccine strain-selection procedure utilizing the complex, large-scale data types from surveillance. To this end, computational techniques should already be incorporated into the vaccine-selection process in an independent, parallel track, and their performance continuously evaluated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thorsten R Klingen
- Department for Computational Biology of Infection Research, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany; Co-first authors
| | - Susanne Reimering
- Department for Computational Biology of Infection Research, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany; Co-first authors
| | - Carlos A Guzmán
- Department of Vaccinology and Applied Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany; German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF)
| | - Alice C McHardy
- Department for Computational Biology of Infection Research, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany; German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF).
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7
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Cobey S, Hensley SE. Immune history and influenza virus susceptibility. Curr Opin Virol 2017; 22:105-111. [PMID: 28088686 DOI: 10.1016/j.coviro.2016.12.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 165] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2016] [Revised: 12/14/2016] [Accepted: 12/20/2016] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Antibody responses to influenza viruses are critical for protection, but the ways in which repeated viral exposures shape antibody evolution and effectiveness over time remain controversial. Early observations demonstrated that viral exposure history has a profound effect on the specificity and magnitude of antibody responses to a new viral strain, a phenomenon called 'original antigenic sin.' Although 'sin' might suppress some aspects of the immune response, so far there is little indication that hosts with pre-existing immunity are more susceptible to viral infections compared to naïve hosts. However, the tendency of the immune response to focus on previously recognized conserved epitopes when encountering new viral strains can create an opportunity cost when mutations arise in these conserved epitopes. Hosts with different exposure histories may continue to experience distinct patterns of infection over time, which may influence influenza viruses' continued antigenic evolution. Understanding the dynamics of B cell competition that underlie the development of antibody responses might help explain the low effectiveness of current influenza vaccines and lead to better vaccination strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Cobey
- Department of Ecology & Evolution, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 19104, USA.
| | - Scott E Hensley
- Department of Microbiology, Perelman School of Medicine, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
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8
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Construction of Multilevel Structure for Avian Influenza Virus System Based on Granular Computing. BIOMED RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2017; 2017:5404180. [PMID: 28191464 PMCID: PMC5278516 DOI: 10.1155/2017/5404180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2016] [Revised: 12/01/2016] [Accepted: 12/14/2016] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
Exploring the genetic structure of influenza viruses attracts the attention in the field of molecular ecology and medical genetics, whose epidemics cause morbidity and mortality worldwide. The rapid variations in RNA strand and changes of protein structure of the virus result in low-accuracy subtyping identification and make it difficult to develop effective drugs and vaccine. This paper constructs the evolutionary structure of avian influenza virus system considering both hemagglutinin and neuraminidase protein fragments. An optimization model was established to determine the rational granularity of the virus system for exploring the intrinsic relationship among the subtypes based on the fuzzy hierarchical evaluation index. Thus, an algorithm was presented to extract the rational structure. Furthermore, to reduce the systematic and computational complexity, the granular signatures of virus system were identified based on the coarse-grained idea and then its performance was evaluated through a designed classifier. The results showed that the obtained virus signatures could approximate and reflect the whole avian influenza virus system, indicating that the proposed method could identify the effective virus signatures. Once a new molecular virus is detected, it is efficient to identify the homologous virus hierarchically.
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9
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Li X, Deem MW. Influenza evolution and H3N2 vaccine effectiveness, with application to the 2014/2015 season. Protein Eng Des Sel 2016; 29:309-15. [PMID: 27313229 PMCID: PMC4955871 DOI: 10.1093/protein/gzw017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2016] [Revised: 04/20/2016] [Accepted: 04/26/2016] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Influenza A is a serious disease that causes significant morbidity and mortality, and vaccines against the seasonal influenza disease are of variable effectiveness. In this article, we discuss the use of the pepitope method to predict the dominant influenza strain and the expected vaccine effectiveness in the coming flu season. We illustrate how the effectiveness of the 2014/2015 A/Texas/50/2012 [clade 3C.1] vaccine against the A/California/02/2014 [clade 3C.3a] strain that emerged in the population can be estimated via pepitope In addition, we show by a multidimensional scaling analysis of data collected through 2014, the emergence of a new A/New Mexico/11/2014-like cluster [clade 3C.2a] that is immunologically distinct from the A/California/02/2014-like strains.
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MESH Headings
- Evolution, Molecular
- Hemagglutinin Glycoproteins, Influenza Virus/chemistry
- Hemagglutinin Glycoproteins, Influenza Virus/metabolism
- Humans
- Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype/immunology
- Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype/metabolism
- Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype/physiology
- Influenza Vaccines/immunology
- Influenza, Human/prevention & control
- Influenza, Human/virology
- Models, Molecular
- Models, Statistical
- Phylogeny
- Protein Conformation
- Seasons
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Affiliation(s)
- Xi Li
- Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | - Michael W Deem
- Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
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10
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Prediction of influenza B vaccine effectiveness from sequence data. Vaccine 2016; 34:4610-4617. [PMID: 27473305 DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.07.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2016] [Revised: 07/01/2016] [Accepted: 07/12/2016] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Influenza is a contagious respiratory illness that causes significant human morbidity and mortality, affecting 5-15% of the population in a typical epidemic season. Human influenza epidemics are caused by types A and B, with roughly 25% of human cases due to influenza B. Influenza B is a single-stranded RNA virus with a high mutation rate, and both prior immune history and vaccination put significant pressure on the virus to evolve. Due to the high rate of viral evolution, the influenza B vaccine component of the annual influenza vaccine is updated, roughly every other year in recent years. To predict when an update to the vaccine is needed, an estimate of expected vaccine effectiveness against a range of viral strains is required. We here introduce a method to measure antigenic distance between the influenza B vaccine and circulating viral strains. The measure correlates well with effectiveness of the influenza B component of the annual vaccine in humans between 1979 and 2014. We discuss how this measure of antigenic distance may be used in the context of annual influenza vaccine design and prediction of vaccine effectiveness.
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11
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Neher RA, Bedford T, Daniels RS, Russell CA, Shraiman BI. Prediction, dynamics, and visualization of antigenic phenotypes of seasonal influenza viruses. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2016; 113:E1701-9. [PMID: 26951657 PMCID: PMC4812706 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1525578113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 117] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Human seasonal influenza viruses evolve rapidly, enabling the virus population to evade immunity and reinfect previously infected individuals. Antigenic properties are largely determined by the surface glycoprotein hemagglutinin (HA), and amino acid substitutions at exposed epitope sites in HA mediate loss of recognition by antibodies. Here, we show that antigenic differences measured through serological assay data are well described by a sum of antigenic changes along the path connecting viruses in a phylogenetic tree. This mapping onto the tree allows prediction of antigenicity from HA sequence data alone. The mapping can further be used to make predictions about the makeup of the future A(H3N2) seasonal influenza virus population, and we compare predictions between models with serological and sequence data. To make timely model output readily available, we developed a web browser-based application that visualizes antigenic data on a continuously updated phylogeny.
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MESH Headings
- Amino Acid Sequence
- Antigenic Variation/genetics
- Antigens, Viral/genetics
- Antigens, Viral/immunology
- Computer Graphics
- Computer Simulation
- Evolution, Molecular
- Forecasting
- Hemagglutinin Glycoproteins, Influenza Virus/genetics
- Hemagglutinin Glycoproteins, Influenza Virus/immunology
- Humans
- Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype/genetics
- Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype/immunology
- Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype/genetics
- Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype/immunology
- Influenza Vaccines
- Influenza, Human/epidemiology
- Influenza, Human/prevention & control
- Betainfluenzavirus/genetics
- Betainfluenzavirus/immunology
- Models, Immunological
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Phenotype
- Phylogeny
- Seasons
- Software
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard A Neher
- Evolutionary Dynamics and Biophysics, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Trevor Bedford
- Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109
| | - Rodney S Daniels
- Worldwide Influenza Centre, The Francis Crick Institute, London NW7 1AA, United Kingdom
| | - Colin A Russell
- Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0ES, United Kingdom
| | - Boris I Shraiman
- Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106
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12
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Virk RK, Gunalan V, Tambyah PA. Influenza infection in human host: challenges in making a better influenza vaccine. Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther 2016; 14:365-75. [PMID: 26885890 DOI: 10.1586/14787210.2016.1155450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Influenza is a ubiquitous infection with a spectrum ranging from mild to severe. The mystery regarding such variability in the clinical spectrum has not been fully unravelled, although a role for the complex interplay among virus characteristics, host immune response and environmental factors has been suggested. Antivirals and current vaccines have a limited role in prophylaxis and treatment because they primarily target surface glycoproteins which undergo antigenic/genetic changes under host immune pressure. Targeting conserved internal proteins could lead the way to a universal vaccine which can be used against various types/subtypes. However, this is on the distant horizon, so in the meantime, developing improved vaccines should be given high priority. In this review, we discuss where the current influenza research stands in terms of vaccines, adjuvants, and how we can better predict the vaccine strains for upcoming influenza seasons by understanding complex phenomena which drive the continuous antigenic evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Vithiagaran Gunalan
- b Bioinformatics Institute (BII), Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) , Singapore
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13
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Kargarfard F, Sami A, Ebrahimie E. Knowledge discovery and sequence-based prediction of pandemic influenza using an integrated classification and association rule mining (CBA) algorithm. J Biomed Inform 2015; 57:181-8. [PMID: 26232668 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbi.2015.07.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2014] [Revised: 07/09/2015] [Accepted: 07/27/2015] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Pandemic influenza is a major concern worldwide. Availability of advanced technologies and the nucleotide sequences of a large number of pandemic and non-pandemic influenza viruses in 2009 provide a great opportunity to investigate the underlying rules of pandemic induction through data mining tools. Here, for the first time, an integrated classification and association rule mining algorithm (CBA) was used to discover the rules underpinning alteration of non-pandemic sequences to pandemic ones. We hypothesized that the extracted rules can lead to the development of an efficient expert system for prediction of influenza pandemics. To this end, we used a large dataset containing 5373 HA (hemagglutinin) segments of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and non-pandemic influenza sequences. The analysis was carried out for both nucleotide and protein sequences. We found a number of new rules which potentially present the undiscovered antigenic sites at influenza structure. At the nucleotide level, alteration of thymine (T) at position 260 was the key discriminating feature in distinguishing non-pandemic from pandemic sequences. At the protein level, rules including I233K, M334L were the differentiating features. CBA efficiently classifies pandemic and non-pandemic sequences with high accuracy at both the nucleotide and protein level. Finding hotspots in influenza sequences is a significant finding as they represent the regions with low antibody reactivity. We argue that the virus breaks host immunity response by mutation at these spots. Based on the discovered rules, we developed the software, "Prediction of Pandemic Influenza" for discrimination of pandemic from non-pandemic sequences. This study opens a new vista in discovery of association rules between mutation points during evolution of pandemic influenza.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fatemeh Kargarfard
- Department of Computer Science and IT, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
| | - Ashkan Sami
- Department of Computer Science and IT, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
| | - Esmaeil Ebrahimie
- School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences, Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia; Institute of Biotechnology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran; Department of Genetics and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
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14
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Suzuki Y. Selecting vaccine strains for H3N2 human influenza A virus. Meta Gene 2015; 4:64-72. [PMID: 25893173 PMCID: PMC4392175 DOI: 10.1016/j.mgene.2015.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/24/2014] [Revised: 02/17/2015] [Accepted: 03/20/2015] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
H3N2 human influenza A virus causes epidemics of influenza mainly in the winter season in temperate regions. Since the antigenicity of this virus evolves rapidly, several attempts have been made to predict the major amino acid sequence of hemagglutinin 1 (HA1) in the target season of vaccination. However, the usefulness of predicted sequence was unclear because its relationship to the antigenicity was unknown. Here the antigenic model for estimating the degree of antigenic difference (antigenic distance) between amino acid sequences of HA1 was integrated into the process of selecting vaccine strains for H3N2 human influenza A virus. When the effectiveness of a potential vaccine strain for a target season was evaluated retrospectively using the average antigenic distance between the strain and the epidemic viruses sampled in the target season, the most effective vaccine strain was identified mostly in the season one year before the target season (pre-target season). Effectiveness of actual vaccines appeared to be lower than that of the strains randomly chosen in the pre-target season on average. It was recommended to replace the vaccine strain for every target season with the strain having the smallest average antigenic distance to the others in the pre-target season. The procedure of selecting vaccine strains for future epidemic seasons described in the present study was implemented in the influenza virus forecasting system (INFLUCAST) (http://www.nsc.nagoya-cu.ac.jp/~yossuzuk/influcast.html).
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoshiyuki Suzuki
- Graduate School of Natural Sciences, Nagoya City University, Nagoya, Japan
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15
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Abstract
Biological systems are modular, and this modularity affects the evolution of biological systems over time and in different environments. We here develop a theory for the dynamics of evolution in a rugged, modular fitness landscape. We show analytically how horizontal gene transfer couples to the modularity in the system and leads to more rapid rates of evolution at short times. The model, in general, analytically demonstrates a selective pressure for the prevalence of modularity in biology. We use this model to show how the evolution of the influenza virus is affected by the modularity of the proteins that are recognized by the human immune system. Approximately 25% of the observed rate of fitness increase of the virus could be ascribed to a modular viral landscape.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeong-Man Park
- Department of Physics & Astronomy Rice University, Houston, TX 77005-1892, USA. Department of Physics, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon 420-743, Korea
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16
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Suzuki Y. Predictability of antigenic evolution for H3N2 human influenza A virus. Genes Genet Syst 2014; 88:225-32. [PMID: 24463525 DOI: 10.1266/ggs.88.225] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Influenza A virus continues to pose a threat to public health. Since this virus can evolve escape mutants rapidly, it is desirable to predict the antigenic evolution for developing effective vaccines. Although empirical methods have been proposed and reported to predict the antigenic evolution more or less accurately, they did not provide much insight into the effects of unobserved mutations and the mechanisms of antigenic evolution. Here a theoretical method was introduced to predict the antigenic evolution of H3N2 human influenza A virus by evaluating de novo mutations through estimating the antigenic distance. The antigenic distance defined with the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titer was estimated with antigenic models taking into account the volume, isoelectric point, relative solvent accessibility, and distances from receptor-binding sites (RBS) and N-linked glycosylation sites (NGS) for amino acids in hemagglutinin 1 (HA1). When the best model with the optimized parameter values was used to predict the antigenic evolution for the dominant strains, the prediction accuracy was relatively low. However, there appeared to be an overall tendency that the amino acid sites with larger potential net effect on antigenicity were more likely to evolve and the amino acid changes with larger potential effect were more likely to take place, suggesting that natural selection may operate to enhance the antigenic evolution of H3N2 human influenza A virus.
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17
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Punctuated evolution of influenza virus neuraminidase (A/H1N1) under opposing migration and vaccination pressures. BIOMED RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2014; 2014:907381. [PMID: 25143953 PMCID: PMC4124202 DOI: 10.1155/2014/907381] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2014] [Accepted: 05/12/2014] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Influenza virus contains two highly variable envelope glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). The structure and properties of HA, which is responsible for binding the virus to the cell that is being infected, change significantly when the virus is transmitted from avian or swine species to humans. Here we focus first on the simpler problem of the much smaller human individual evolutionary amino acid mutational changes in NA, which cleaves sialic acid groups and is required for influenza virus replication. Our thermodynamic panorama shows that very small amino acid changes can be monitored very accurately across many historic (1945–2011) Uniprot and NCBI strains using hydropathicity scales to quantify the roughness of water film packages. Quantitative sequential analysis is most effective with the fractal differential hydropathicity scale based on protein self-organized criticality (SOC). Our analysis shows that large-scale vaccination programs have been responsible for a very large convergent reduction in common influenza severity in the last century. Hydropathic analysis is capable of interpreting and even predicting trends of functional changes in mutation prolific viruses directly from amino acid sequences alone. An engineered strain of NA1 is described which could well be significantly less virulent than current circulating strains.
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18
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Ebrahimi M, Aghagolzadeh P, Shamabadi N, Tahmasebi A, Alsharifi M, Adelson DL, Hemmatzadeh F, Ebrahimie E. Understanding the undelaying mechanism of HA-subtyping in the level of physic-chemical characteristics of protein. PLoS One 2014; 9:e96984. [PMID: 24809455 PMCID: PMC4014573 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0096984] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2013] [Accepted: 04/07/2014] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The evolution of the influenza A virus to increase its host range is a major concern worldwide. Molecular mechanisms of increasing host range are largely unknown. Influenza surface proteins play determining roles in reorganization of host-sialic acid receptors and host range. In an attempt to uncover the physic-chemical attributes which govern HA subtyping, we performed a large scale functional analysis of over 7000 sequences of 16 different HA subtypes. Large number (896) of physic-chemical protein characteristics were calculated for each HA sequence. Then, 10 different attribute weighting algorithms were used to find the key characteristics distinguishing HA subtypes. Furthermore, to discover machine leaning models which can predict HA subtypes, various Decision Tree, Support Vector Machine, Naïve Bayes, and Neural Network models were trained on calculated protein characteristics dataset as well as 10 trimmed datasets generated by attribute weighting algorithms. The prediction accuracies of the machine learning methods were evaluated by 10-fold cross validation. The results highlighted the frequency of Gln (selected by 80% of attribute weighting algorithms), percentage/frequency of Tyr, percentage of Cys, and frequencies of Try and Glu (selected by 70% of attribute weighting algorithms) as the key features that are associated with HA subtyping. Random Forest tree induction algorithm and RBF kernel function of SVM (scaled by grid search) showed high accuracy of 98% in clustering and predicting HA subtypes based on protein attributes. Decision tree models were successful in monitoring the short mutation/reassortment paths by which influenza virus can gain the key protein structure of another HA subtype and increase its host range in a short period of time with less energy consumption. Extracting and mining a large number of amino acid attributes of HA subtypes of influenza A virus through supervised algorithms represent a new avenue for understanding and predicting possible future structure of influenza pandemics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mansour Ebrahimi
- Department of Biology, School of Basic Sciences, University of Qom, Qom, Iran
| | - Parisa Aghagolzadeh
- Department of Nephrology, Hypertension, and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Narges Shamabadi
- Department of Biology, School of Basic Sciences, University of Qom, Qom, Iran
| | | | - Mohammed Alsharifi
- School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
| | - David L. Adelson
- School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Farhid Hemmatzadeh
- School of Animal and Veterinary Science, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
- * E-mail: (FH); (EE)
| | - Esmaeil Ebrahimie
- School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
- * E-mail: (FH); (EE)
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19
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Evolution trends of the 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) viruses in different continents from March 2009 to April 2012. Biologia (Bratisl) 2014. [DOI: 10.2478/s11756-014-0341-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
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20
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Du X, Dong L, Lan Y, Peng Y, Wu A, Zhang Y, Huang W, Wang D, Wang M, Guo Y, Shu Y, Jiang T. Mapping of H3N2 influenza antigenic evolution in China reveals a strategy for vaccine strain recommendation. Nat Commun 2012; 3:709. [PMID: 22426230 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1710] [Citation(s) in RCA: 76] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2011] [Accepted: 01/26/2012] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
One of the primary efforts in influenza vaccine strain recommendation is to monitor through gene sequencing the viral surface protein haemagglutinin (HA) variants that lead to viral antigenic changes. Here we have developed a computational method, denoted as PREDAC, to predict antigenic clusters of influenza A (H3N2) viruses with high accuracy from viral HA sequences. Application of PREDAC to large-scale HA sequence data of H3N2 viruses isolated from diverse regions of Mainland China identified 17 antigenic clusters that have dominated for at least one season between 1968 and 2010. By tracking the dynamics of the dominant antigenic clusters, we not only find that dominant antigenic clusters change more frequently in China than in the United States/Europe, but also characterize the antigenic patterns of seasonal H3N2 viruses within China. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the coupling of large-scale HA sequencing with PREDAC can significantly improve vaccine strain recommendation for China.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiangjun Du
- Key Laboratory of Protein and Peptide Pharmaceuticals, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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21
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Burioni R, Scalco R, Casartelli M. Rohlin distance and the evolution of influenza A virus: weak attractors and precursors. PLoS One 2011; 6:e27924. [PMID: 22162994 PMCID: PMC3232212 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0027924] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2011] [Accepted: 10/27/2011] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The evolution of the hemagglutinin amino acids sequences of Influenza A virus is studied by a method based on an informational metrics, originally introduced by Rohlin for partitions in abstract probability spaces. This metrics does not require any previous functional or syntactic knowledge about the sequences and it is sensitive to the correlated variations in the characters disposition. Its efficiency is improved by algorithmic tools, designed to enhance the detection of the novelty and to reduce the noise of useless mutations. We focus on the USA data from 1993/94 to 2010/2011 for A/H3N2 and on USA data from 2006/07 to 2010/2011 for A/H1N1. We show that the clusterization of the distance matrix gives strong evidence to a structure of domains in the sequence space, acting as weak attractors for the evolution, in very good agreement with the epidemiological history of the virus. The structure proves very robust with respect to the variations of the clusterization parameters, and extremely coherent when restricting the observation window. The results suggest an efficient strategy in the vaccine forecast, based on the presence of "precursors" (or "buds") populating the most recent attractor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raffaella Burioni
- Dipartimento di Fisica e Instituto Nazionale si Fisca Nucleare (INFN), Università di Parma, Parma, Italy.
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22
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Ito K, Igarashi M, Miyazaki Y, Murakami T, Iida S, Kida H, Takada A. Gnarled-trunk evolutionary model of influenza A virus hemagglutinin. PLoS One 2011; 6:e25953. [PMID: 22028800 PMCID: PMC3189952 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025953] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2011] [Accepted: 09/13/2011] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Human influenza A viruses undergo antigenic changes with gradual accumulation of amino acid substitutions on the hemagglutinin (HA) molecule. A strong antigenic mismatch between vaccine and epidemic strains often requires the replacement of influenza vaccines worldwide. To establish a practical model enabling us to predict the future direction of the influenza virus evolution, relative distances of amino acid sequences among past epidemic strains were analyzed by multidimensional scaling (MDS). We found that human influenza viruses have evolved along a gnarled evolutionary pathway with an approximately constant curvature in the MDS-constructed 3D space. The gnarled pathway indicated that evolution on the trunk favored multiple substitutions at the same amino acid positions on HA. The constant curvature was reasonably explained by assuming that the rate of amino acid substitutions varied from one position to another according to a gamma distribution. Furthermore, we utilized the estimated parameters of the gamma distribution to predict the amino acid substitutions on HA in subsequent years. Retrospective prediction tests for 12 years from 1997 to 2009 showed that 70% of actual amino acid substitutions were correctly predicted, and that 45% of predicted amino acid substitutions have been actually observed. Although it remains unsolved how to predict the exact timing of antigenic changes, the present results suggest that our model may have the potential to recognize emerging epidemic strains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimihito Ito
- Hokkaido University Research Center for Zoonosis Control, Sapporo, Japan
- PRESTO, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama, Japan
| | - Manabu Igarashi
- Hokkaido University Research Center for Zoonosis Control, Sapporo, Japan
| | - Yutaka Miyazaki
- Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Osaka University of Economics and Law, Yao, Japan
| | - Teiji Murakami
- Hokkaido University Research Center for Zoonosis Control, Sapporo, Japan
| | - Syaka Iida
- Hokkaido University Research Center for Zoonosis Control, Sapporo, Japan
| | - Hiroshi Kida
- Hokkaido University Research Center for Zoonosis Control, Sapporo, Japan
- Department of Disease Control, Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
- OIE Reference Laboratory for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, Sapporo, Japan
- SORST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama, Japan
| | - Ayato Takada
- Hokkaido University Research Center for Zoonosis Control, Sapporo, Japan
- School of Veterinary Medicine, The University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia
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