Comparison of the genomes of the wild-type French viscerotropic strain of yellow fever virus with its vaccine derivative French neurotropic vaccine

• Published in: Journal of general virology 1995-11, Vol.76 (11), p.2749-2755
• Main Authors: Wang, Eryu, Ryman, Kate D, Jennings, Alan D, Wood, David J, Taffs, Frank, Minor, Philip D, Sanders, Peter G, Barrett, Alan D. T
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amino Acids - analysis; Animals; Cercopithecus aethiops; DNA, Viral - analysis; France; Genes, Viral; Genome, Viral; Haplorhini; Mice; Molecular Sequence Data; Nucleotides - analysis; Vaccines, Attenuated - genetics; Vero Cells; Viral Envelope Proteins - chemistry; Viral Envelope Proteins - genetics; Viral Structural Proteins - genetics; Viral Vaccines - genetics; Viral Vaccines - isolation & purification; yellow fever virus; Yellow fever virus - genetics; Yellow fever virus - immunology; Yellow fever virus - isolation & purification
• ISSN: 0022-1317; 1465-2099
• DOI: 10.1099/0022-1317-76-11-2749

1 Center for Tropical Diseases and Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 77555-0605, USA 2 Division of Virology, National Institute of Biological Standards and Control, Potters Bar EN6 3QG, UK and 3 Molecular Microbiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 5XH, UK The French neurotropic vaccine, or FNV, was used extensively in Africa to control yellow fever (YF). Although efficacious, the vaccine caused an unacceptable rate of post-vaccinal complications in children and was subsequently replaced by the 17D vaccine. Here we report that the genomes of the wild-type YF virus French viscerotropic virus and its attenuated vaccine derivative, FNV virus from the Institut Pasteur, Paris, (FNV-IP) differ by 77 nucleotides encoding 35 amino acid substitutions. Comparison of FNV-IP and three other isolates of FNV with other YF vaccine strains (17D-204 and 17DD derived from wild-type strain Asibi) revealed that during the two attenuation processes two common nucleotide changes arose that encode two amino acid substitutions: one is in the membrane protein at amino acid 35 (M-35), the other in nonstructural (NS) protein 4B at NS4B-95. These common substitutions may be important in the process of attenuation of viscerotropic disease for humans and monkeys, and/or may be involved in loss of mosquito competence of the vaccine viruses. * Author for correspondence. Fax [phone]. e-mail [e-mail] Present address: European Collection of Animal Cell Cultures, Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0JG, UK. Received 27 January 1995; accepted 23 June 1995.