Similarity of currently circulating H1N1 virus with the 2009 pandemic clone: viability of an imminent pandemic.
The first influenza pandemic in the 21st century commenced in March, 2009 causing nearly 300,000 deaths globally within the first year of the pandemic. In late 2013 and in early 2014, there was gradual increase in the reported case of H1N1 infection and according to World Health Organization (WHO) report, influenza activity increased in several areas of the Southern Hemisphere and was dominated by the H1N1 pandemic strain of 2009. In the present study, a comprehensive comparison of the global amino acid composition and the structural features of all HA gene sequences of H1N1, available in the Flu Database (NCBI), from 1918 to December, 2014 has been performed to trace out the possibility of a further H1N1 pandemic in near future. The results suggest that the increased potential to enhance pathogenicity for the H1N1 samples of 2013 (latter part) and 2014 could lead to a more severe outbreak in the near future.
Department of Bio-Physics, Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata 700009, India.
Rachana
R
Banerjee
NBU Bioinformatics Facility, Department of Botany, University of North Bengal, Raja Rammohanpur, Siliguri 734013, India.
Ayan
A
Roy
Biomedical Informatics Center, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, P-33, C.I.T Road, Scheme-XM, Beliaghata, Kolkata 700010, India.
Santasabuj
S
Das
Department of Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, Tripura 799 022, India; Bioinformatics Centre, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, Tripura 799 022, India. Electronic address: basaksurajit@gmail.com.
Surajit
S
Basak
D000939:Epitopes / Q000235:genetics; D005544:Forecasting; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D006388:Hemagglutinins / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D058873:Pandemics; D016415:Sequence Alignment
D000939:Epitopes; D006388:Hemagglutinins
Evolution; H1N1; Hemagglutinin; Pandemic; Pathogenicity