作者
Gu-Lung Lin,Simon B. Drysdale,Matthew D. Snape,Daniel O’Connor,Anthony Brown,George MacIntyre-Cockett,Esther Mellado-Gomez,Mariateresa de Cesare,David Bonsall,M. Azim Ansari,Deniz Öner,Jeroen Aerssens,Christopher Collett Butler,Louis Bont,Peter Openshaw,Federico Martinón‐Torres,Harish Nair,Rory Bowden,Harry Campbell,Steve Cunningham,Debby Bogaert,Philippe Beutels,Joanne Wildenbeest,Elizabeth Clutterbuck,Joseph McGinley,Ryan S. Thwaites,Dexter Wiseman,Alberto Gómez-Carballa,Carmen Rodríguez‐Tenreiro,Irene Rivero‐Calle,Ana Dacosta-Urbieta,Terho Heikkinen,Adam Meijer,Thea Kølsen Fischer,Maarten van den Berge,Carlo Giaquinto,Michael E. Abram,Philip R. Dormitzer,Sonia K. Stoszek,Scott Gallichan,Brian Rosen,Eva Molero,Núria Machín,Martina Spadetto,Tanya Golubchik,Andrew J. Pollard
摘要
Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of lower respiratory tract infection in young children globally, but little is known about within-host RSV diversity. Here, we characterised within-host RSV populations using deep-sequencing data from 319 nasopharyngeal swabs collected during 2017-2020. RSV-B had lower consensus diversity than RSV-A at the population level, while exhibiting greater within-host diversity. Two RSV-B consensus sequences had an amino acid alteration (K68N) in the fusion (F) protein, which has been associated with reduced susceptibility to nirsevimab (MEDI8897), a novel RSV monoclonal antibody under development. In addition, several minor variants were identified in the antigenic sites of the F protein, one of which may confer resistance to palivizumab, the only licensed RSV monoclonal antibody. The differences in within-host virus populations emphasise the importance of monitoring for vaccine efficacy and may help to explain the different prevalences of monoclonal antibody-escape mutants between the two subgroups.