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Studies on antigenic variation in influenza virus. Evidence for multiple antigenic determinants on the hemagglutinin subunits of A/Hong Kong/68 (H3 N2) virus and the A/England/72 strains

1974; Elsevier BV; Volume: 59; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0042-6822(74)90218-9

1096-0341

W.G. Laver, Jean C. Downie, Robert G. Webster,

Respiratory viral infections research

Hemagglutinin subunits were isolated from Hong Kong influenza virus (A/Hong Kong/68, H3 N2) and from its antigenic variants, A/England/42/72, and A/Memphis/102/72 which arose as the result of antigenic drift. Immunodiffusion tests showed that the HK/68 subunits possessed at least two different kinds of antigenic determinants while the 1972 variants appeared to possess at least three different determinants. Evidence suggested that the different antigenic determinants were located on the same hemagglutinin subunit and that the virus particles did not possess a mixture of antigenically different subunits. One of the antigenic determinants was common to the hemagglutinin subunits of A/Hong Kong/68, A/England/42/72 and A/Memphis/102/72 viruses. Antibody to this determinant cross-reacted in immunodiffusion, hemagglutination-inhibition, and neutralization tests with all three viruses. Antibodies to another determinant showed no detectable serological cross-reactions between HK/68 and Mem/72 viruses. Thus it appeared that during antigenic drift, Hong Kong influenza virus had undergone an antigenic shift in this “specific” determinant. Antibody to the “specific” determinant on HK/68 hemagglutinin (which did not react at all with Mem/72) did, however, show some cross-reaction with A/England/42/72 hemagglutinin suggesting that this virus was an intermediate in the evolution of the Memphis/72 variant. Despite the occurrence of an antigenic shift in one determinant, peptide maps of the light polypeptides (HA2) from the hemagglutinin subunits of HK/68 and Mem/72 viruses were almost identical and maps of the heavy polypeptides (HA1) showed only a relatively small number of differences.