Genomic characterization, transcriptome analysis, and pathogenicity of the Nipah virus (Indian isolate)

ABSTRACT

Nipah virus (NiV) is a high-risk pathogen which can cause fatal infections in humans. The Indian isolate from the 2018 outbreak in the Kerala state of India showed ~ 4% nucleotide and amino acid difference in comparison to the Bangladesh strains of NiV and the substitutions observed were mostly not present in the region of any functional significance except for the phosphoprotein gene. The differential expression of viral genes was observed following infection in Vero (ATCC® CCL−81™) and BHK−21 cells. Intraperitoneal infection in the 10–12-week-old, Syrian hamster model induced dose dependant multisystemic disease characterized by prominent vascular lesions in lungs, brain, kidney and extra vascular lesions in brain and lungs. Congestion, haemorrhages, inflammatory cell infiltration, thrombosis and rarely endothelial syncitial cell formation were seen in the blood vessels. Intranasal infection resulted in respiratory tract infection characterised by pneumonia. The model showed disease characteristics resembling the human NiV infection except that of myocarditis similar to that reported by NiV-Malaysia and NiV-Bangladesh isolates in hamster model. The variation observed in the genome of the Indian isolate at the amino acid levels should be explored further for any functional significance.

KEYWORDS:

• Nipah virus
• Indian isolate
• characterization
• hamster
• pathogenicity

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Indian Council of Medical Research as an intramural grant to ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune. We acknowledge the support received from Prof. Priya Abraham, Director, ICMR-NIV, Pune. The authors acknowledge the support of Dr Dimpal Nyayanit for the next generation sequencing analysis and the technical support received from the laboratory team of Maximum Containment Facility of ICMR-NIV, Pune, i.e., Mr Manoj Kadam and Mr Rajen Lakra for animal experiments, Dr Rajlaxmi Jain, Mrs Savita Patil, Mrs Triparna Majumdar, Mrs Kaumudi Kalele, Ms Jyoti Yemul, Ms Pranita Gawande for sample testing and Mr Yash Joshi for support in sequence analysis. We acknowledge the support of Dr N.Kurkure for the histopathology services and Dr B. Dinesh Kumar, Scientist G, ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, Telangana, India for providing the animals required for the experiment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data Availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article. The transcriptome data that support the findings of this study are openly available in NCBI at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/?term=, reference number. [SRR24202203, SRR24202204, SRR24202205, SRR24202206, SRR24202207, SRR24202208, SRR24202209, SRR24202210, SRR24202211, SRR24202212].

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2023.2224642

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research [Intramural Grant] to ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune.