The hemagglutinin (HA) of six H5 influenza virus strains isolated from ducks in Japan and China in 1976 to 1996 were analyzed antigenically and genetically. Antigenic analysis using a panel of monoclonal antibodies revealed that the HA of H5 influenza viruses isolated from ducks are antigenically closely related to each other. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the isolates from ducks in Hokk...

During two winter seasons between 1999 and 2001, seven strains of influenza virus were isolated from healthy pigs in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. All isolates were identified as A (H1N2) reassortant viruses. Genetic and phylogenetic analyses indicated that they had classical swine-like hemagglutinin (HA) and internal genes, and relatively early human-like neuraminidase (NA) gene. The HA and NA ge...

A universal microchip was developed for genotyping Influenza A viruses. It contains two sets of oligonucleotide probes allowing viruses to be classified by the subtypes of hemagglutinin (H1-H13, H15, H16) and neuraminidase (N1-N9). Additional sets of probes are used to detect H1N1 swine influenza viruses. Selection of probes was done in two steps. Initially, amino acid sequences specific to eac...

Generating a broadly protective influenza vaccine is critical to global health. Understanding how immune memory influences influenza immunity is central to this goal. We undertook an in-depth study of the B cell response to the pandemic 2009 H1N1 vaccine over consecutive years. Analysis of monoclonal antibodies generated from vaccine-induced plasmablasts demonstrated that individuals with low p...

BACKGROUND New highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza viruses are continuing to evolve with a potential threat for an influenza pandemic. So far, the H5N1 influenza viruses have not widely circulated in humans and therefore constitute a high risk for the non immune population. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cross-protective potential of the hemagglutinins of five H5N1 strains of divergent ...

Oseltamivir-resistant 2009 H1N1 influenza virus infections associated with neuraminidase (NA) H275Y have been identified sporadically. Strains possessing the hemagglutinin (HA) D222G mutation have been detected in small numbers of fatal 2009 H1N1 cases. We report the first clinical description of 2009 H1N1 virus infection with both NA-H275Y and HA-D222G mutations detected by pyrosequencing of b...

Influenza virus contains two highly variable envelope glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Here we show that, while HA evolution is much more complex than NA evolution, it still shows abrupt punctuation changes linked to punctuation changes of NA. HA exhibits proteinquakes, which resemble earthquakes and are related to hydropathic shifting of sialic acid binding regions. HA...

Enveloped viruses contain surface proteins that mediate fusion between the viral and target cell membranes following an activating stimulus. Acidic pH induces the influenza virus fusion protein hemagglutinin (HA) via irreversible refolding of a trimeric conformational state leading to exposure of hydrophobic fusion peptides on each trimer subunit. Herein, we show that cells expressing fowl plag...

Reference antisera were produced against 15 influenza hemagglutinin (HA) subtypes using DNA vaccination to produce a high-quality polyclonal serum to the HA protein without antibodies to other influenza viral proteins. The HA gene from each of 15 different HA subtypes of influenza virus was cloned into a eukaryotic expression vector and injected intramuscularly, together with a cationic lipid, ...

Background and Aims: The contribution genetic and antigenic diversity of H9N2 influenza viruses in evading from immune responses, cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) epitopes in hemagglutinin (HA) protein restricted by HLA binding peptides was identified. Materials and Methods: Phylogenetic analyses were carried out for all of full length HA and deduced amino acid sequences of H9N2 viruses available ...