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Commentary
H1N1 Low Reactor G158E
D225N Recombinant In Japan
Recombinomics
Commentary 07:44
March 9, 2010
D225G has been found to be strongly associated with severe and fatal cases in Norway as well as Ukraine. Egg isolates from milder cases have also been found to contain D225G, which was not seen in direct sequencing of the clinical samples or isolates grown in mammalian cells. D225G, has affinity for gal 2,3 receptors found in chicken embryos in eggs, and therefore a more sensitive assay for samples with low levels of D225G. Recent statements by the CDC on the number of patients testing positive for D225G do not include patients with D225G detection limited to egg isolates, indicating the CDC is using the negative data from assays that select against D225G, to nullify detection of D225G in eggs which selective for the change. The use of a negative result from a less sensitive assay to trump positive results from more sensitive assays raises serious concerns on the generation and interpretation of sequence data. This concern is increased when the above “logic” is applied to an important marker like D225G.
Thus, D225G may be circulating widely but silently because of the minimal use of eggs to expand H1N1 isolates. D225G appears to be on the rise, and this increase may accelerate because D225G confers low reactor status, and can recombine with another low reactor polymorphism, like G158E.
These recent results raise serious question about H1N1 surveillance represented by public sequences, and continue to be hazardous to the world’s health.
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