Circulating type 1 vaccine-derived poliovirus may evolve under the pressure of adenosine deaminases acting on RNA

Abstract

Poliovirus, the causative agent of poliomyelitis, is a human enterovirus and member of the Picornaviridae family. An effective live-attenuated poliovirus vaccine strain (Sabin 1) has been developed and has protected humans from polio. However, a few cases of vaccine virulence reversion have been documented in several countries. For instance, circulating type 1 vaccine-derived poliovirus is a highly pathogenic poliovirus that evolved from an avirulent strain, but the mechanism by which vaccine strains undergo reversion remains unclear. In this study, vaccine strains exhibited A to G/U to C and G to A/C to U hypermutations in the reversed evolution of Sabin 1. Furthermore, the mutation ratios of U to C and C to U were higher than those of other mutation types. Dinucleotide editing context was then analyzed. Results showed that A to G and U to C mutations exhibited preferences similar to adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADAR). Hence, ADARs may participate in poliovirus vaccine evolution.

• ADARs
• APOBECs
• circulating type 1 vaccine
• mutation
• polio virus

Declaration of interest

None of the authors has any financial or personal relationships that could inappropriately influence or bias the content of the paper.

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2012CQ001), the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20123702120008).