title: Full genome analysis of enterovirus D-68 strains circulating in Alberta, Canada.
abstract: A widespread outbreak of enterovirus (EV)-D68 that started in the summer of 2014 has been reported in the USA and Canada. During the course of this outbreak, EV-D68 was identified as a possible cause of acute, unexplained severe respiratory illness and a temporal association was observed between acute flaccid paralysis with anterior myelitis and EV-D68 detection in the upper respiratory tract. In this study, four nasopharyngeal samples collected from patients in Alberta, Canada with a laboratory diagnosis of EV-D68 were used to determine the near full-length genome sequence directly from the specimens. Phylogenetic analysis was performed to study the genotypes and pathogenesis of the circulating strains. Our results support the contention that mutations in the VP1 gene and other regions of the genome causing altered antigenicity, as well as lack of immunity in the younger population, may be responsible for the increased severe respiratory disease outbreaks of EV-D68 worldwide.
authors.affiliation: Provincial Laboratory for Public Health, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Kanti
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pabbaraju
authors.affiliation: Provincial Laboratory for Public Health, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Sallene
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Provincial Laboratory for Public Health, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.|Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Drews
authors.affiliation: Provincial Laboratory for Public Health, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.|Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tipples
authors.affiliation: Provincial Laboratory for Public Health, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.|Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tellier
mesh_terms: D000416:Alberta / Q000453:epidemiology; D001483:Base Sequence; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D030016:Enterovirus D, Human / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000472:pathogenicity; D004769:Enterovirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009154:Mutation; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000821:virology; D010802:Phylogeny; D012621:Seasons; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins
keywords: EV-D68; acute flaccid myelitis; enterovirus; full genome; lineage