title: An outbreak caused by GII.17 norovirus with a wide spectrum of HBGA-associated susceptibility.
abstract: During the past norovirus (NoV) epidemic season, a new GII.17 variant emerged as a predominant NoV strain, surpassed the GII.4 NoVs, causing outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in China. Here we report a study of an AGE outbreak in an elementary school in December 2014 caused by the new GII.17 NoV to explore the potential mechanism behind the sudden epidemics of the GII.17 NoV. A total of 276 individuals were sick with typical NoV infection symptoms of vomiting (93.4%), abdominal pain (90.4%), nausea (60.0%), and diarrhea (10.4%) at an attack rate of 5.7-16.9%. Genotyping of the symptomatic patients showed that individuals with a secretor positive status, including those with A, B, and O secretors and Lewis positive blood types, were sensitive to the virus, while the non-secretors and the Lewis negative individual were not. Accordingly, the recombinant capsid P protein of the GII.17 isolate showed a wide binding spectrum to saliva samples of all A, B, and O secretors. Thus, the broad binding spectrum of the new GII.17 variant could explain its widely spread nature in China and surrounding areas in the past two years.
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Xu-Fu
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Qiong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: Divisions of Infectious Diseases, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.|Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Divisions of Infectious Diseases, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.|Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: DongGuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dongguan, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Qiao-Li
authors.initials: QL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: DongGuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dongguan, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Zhen-Yu
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: DongGuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dongguan, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Yue-Huan
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: DongGuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dongguan, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Yao-Quan
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Gui-Fang
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Shixing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Research, School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Chun
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Dai
mesh_terms: D000017:ABO Blood-Group System / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000378:metabolism*; D001665:Binding Sites; D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000821:virology*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D005243:Feces / Q000821:virology; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D006801:Humans; D007983:Lewis Blood Group Antigens / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D029322:Norovirus / Q000502:physiology*; D010641:Phenotype; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012307:Risk Factors; D012463:Saliva / Q000821:virology; D040681:Structural Homology, Protein; D013334:Students
chemical_list: D000017:ABO Blood-Group System; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D007983:Lewis Blood Group Antigens