Review
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Fitness Determinants of Influenza A Viruses
Version 1
: Received: 4 September 2023 / Approved: 5 September 2023 / Online: 6 September 2023 (03:12:41 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Griffin, E.F.; Tompkins, S.M. Fitness Determinants of Influenza A Viruses. Viruses 2023, 15, 1959. Griffin, E.F.; Tompkins, S.M. Fitness Determinants of Influenza A Viruses. Viruses 2023, 15, 1959.
Abstract
Influenza A (IAV) is a major human respiratory pathogen, causing illness, hospitalizations, and mortality annually worldwide. IAV is also a zoonotic pathogen with a multitude of hosts, allowing for interspecies transmission, reassortment events, and the emergence of novel pandemics, as was seen in 2009 with the emergence of a swine origin H1N1 (pdmH1N1) virus into humans, causing the first influenza pandemic of the 21st century. While the 2009 pandemic was considered to have high morbidity and low mortality, studies have linked the pdmH1N1 virus and its gene segments to increased disease in humans and animal models. Genetic components of the pdmH1N1 virus currently circulate in the swine population, reassorting with endemic swine viruses that co-circulate and occasionally spillover into humans. This is evidenced by the regular detection of variant swine IAVs in humans associated with state fairs and other intersections of humans and swine. Defining genetic changes that support species adaptation, virulence, and cross-species transmission, as well as mutations that enhance or attenuate these features will improve our understanding of influenza biology, aid in surveillance and virus risk assessment, and guide the establishment of counter measures for emerging viruses. Here, we review current understanding of determinants of specific IAV phenotypes, focusing on the fitness, transmission, and virulence determinants that have been identified in swine IAVs and/or in relation to the 2009 pdmH1N1 virus.
Keywords
influenza A virus; virulence; genetic fitness; disease transmission; review
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Virology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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