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Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of human influenza A viruses isolated in Iran during the 2014-2015 season

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Abstract

Influenza A viruses are an important cause of severe infectious diseases in humans and are characterized by their fast evolution rate. Global monitoring of these viruses is critical to detect newly emerging variants during annual epidemics. Here, we sought to genetically characterize influenza A/H1N1pdm09 and A/H3N2 viruses collected in Iran during the 2014–2015 influenza season. A total of 200 nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from patients with influenza-like illnesses. Swabs were screened for influenza A and B using real-time PCR. Furthermore, positive specimens with high virus load underwent virus isolation and genetic characterization of their hemagglutinin (HA) and M genes. Of the 200 specimens, 80 were influenza A-positive, including 44 A/H1N1pdm09 and 36 A/H3N2, while 18 were influenza B-positive. Phylogenetic analysis of the HA genes of the A/H1N1pdm09 viruses revealed the circulation of clade 6C, characterized by amino acid substitutions D97N, V234I and K283E. Analysis of the A/H3N2 viruses showed a genetic drift from the vaccine strain A/Texas/50/2012 with 5 mutations (T128A, R142G, N145S, P198S and S219F) belonging to the antigenic sites A, B, and D of the HA protein. The A/H3N2 viruses belonged to phylogenetic clades 3C.2 and 3C.3. The M gene trees of the Iranian A/H1N1pdm09 and A/H3N2 mirrored the clustering patterns of their corresponding HA trees. Our results reveal co-circulation of several influenza A virus strains in Iran during the 2014-2015 influenza season.

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Author contributions

All authors contributed extensively to the work presented in this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Malek-Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Elham Moasser & Farida Behzadian

  2. Department of Bacteriology and Virology, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Afagh Moattari & Seyed Younes Hosseini

  3. Influenza Research Lab, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran

    Fatemeh Fotouhi

  4. Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Amir Rahimi

  5. Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Advanced Medical Sciences and Technologies, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Amir Rahimi

  6. Department of Experimental Pathology, Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Hassan Zaraket

  7. Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Hassan Zaraket

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  1. Elham Moasser
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  2. Farida Behzadian
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  3. Afagh Moattari
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  4. Fatemeh Fotouhi
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  5. Amir Rahimi
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  7. Seyed Younes Hosseini
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Correspondence to Farida Behzadian.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Pasteur’s institutional research committee of Iran and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Moasser, E., Behzadian, F., Moattari, A. et al. Molecular characterization and phylogenetic analysis of human influenza A viruses isolated in Iran during the 2014-2015 season. Arch Virol 162, 1975–1984 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-017-3323-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00705-017-3323-3

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