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Genetic diversity of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in relation to infection and re-infection

Background. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes recurrent epidemics in communities and repeated reinfections of individuals throughout life. The extent to which this is a consequence of antigenic diversity of the virus caused by genetic evolution is poorly defined. Clarification of these phenomena has implications for our understanding of RSV persistence and vaccine control. Further, studying RSV epidemics genetic composition contributes to understanding of the transmission dynamics of this virus. Methods. RSV positive specimens were available from the freezer archives of three epiderrnologic studies in KVifi District, Coastal Kenya, undertaken between 2002 and 2012. Selected specimens were nucleotide sequenced in the highly variable attachment (G) protein gene (n=917) or for whole genomes (n=83), and phylogenetically analyzed. This analysis was supported by a set of contemporaneous sequences from around the world deposited in GenBank. Results. The genetic relatedness of virus sequences from infection-reinfection pairs from individuals followed within a birth c.ohort (2.002-05) revealed that the vast majoritY (>90%, 48/53) differed by either RSV group, genotype or G amino acid sequence. However, the genotype temporal distribution amongst re-infections mirrored the contemporaneous distribution in the wider study population.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:664468
Date January 2014
CreatorsAgoti, Charles Nyaigoti
PublisherOpen University
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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