title: Isolation and characterization of dengue virus serotype 2 from the large dengue outbreak in Guangdong, China in 2014.
abstract: Dengue has been well recognized as a global public health threat, but only sporadic epidemics and imported cases were reported in recent decades in China. Since July 2014, an unexpected large dengue outbreak has occurred in Guangdong province, China, resulting in more than 40000 patients including six deaths. To clarify and characterize the causative agent of this outbreak, the acute phase serum from a patient diagnosed with severe dengue was subjected to virus isolation and high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Traditional real-time RT-PCR and HTS with Ion Torrent PGM detected the presence of dengue virus serotype 2 (DENV-2). A clinical DENV-2 isolate GZ05/2014 was obtained by culturing the patient serum in mosquito C6/36 cells. The complete genome of GZ05/2014 was determined and deposited in GenBank under the access number KP012546. Phylogenetic analysis based on the complete envelope gene showed that the newly DENV-2 isolate belonged to Cosmopolitan genotype and clustered closely with other Guangdong strains isolated in the past decade. No amino acid mutations that are obviously known to increase virulence or replication were identified throughout the genome of GZ05/2014. The high homology of Guangdong DENV-2 strains indicated the possibility of establishment of local DENV-2 circulation in Guangdong, China. These results help clarify the origin of this epidemic and predict the future status of dengue in China.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, 100071, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: LingZhai
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: XiaoFeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Hang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: WenXin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: YiGang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: WuChun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: FuChun
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: ChengFeng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Qin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000818:Animals; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D009033:Culicidae / Q000821:virology; D003715:Dengue / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology; D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction