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Infection and Immunity, May 2006, p. 2562-2567, Vol. 74, No. 5
0019-9567/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/IAI.74.5.2562-2567.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Departments of Infectious Diseases,1 Pathology,3 Animal Resources Center, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee2
Received 17 August 2005/ Returned for modification 27 September 2005/ Accepted 1 February 2006
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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Influenza viruses are classified into three types, i.e., influenza A, B, and C viruses. Influenza A viruses are further subtyped based on two surface glycoproteins, the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Viruses with an H1 HA and an N1 NA (subtype H1N1 viruses) entered humans in 1918 and circulated within the human population between 1918 and 1957 and from 1976 to the present. A new strain created by reassortment with an avian virus began circulating in 1957 and carried an H2 HA and an N2 NA (subtype H2N2). This strain was itself replaced in 1968 with a strain carrying a new H3 HA but the same N2 NA (subtype H3N2). These H3N2 viruses have circulated in humans since 1968 (for a review, see reference 37). Influenza B viruses are not subtyped and do not have an animal reservoir. Influenza C viruses rarely cause significant disease (23). Epidemiologic studies have shown a difference in the complication rates for different influenza virus types and subtypes. In general, H3N2 strains are more virulent (3, 38) and are associated with more complications than H1N1 or influenza B viruses (34-36).
In this study we sought support for our hypothesis that differences in viral strains account for differences in bacterial complications. Because very few influenza viruses are mouse adapted, we had to use an alternate animal model to investigate secondary bacterial infections following infection with naturally occurring influenza viruses. We had previously demonstrated that pneumococcus could productively colonize adult ferrets and that influenza virus enhanced this colonization (31). Adapting this model to study sinusitis and otitis media, we tested the ability of representative strains of influenza B virus and the H3N2 and H1N1 subtypes of influenza A virus to contribute to secondary infections in weanling ferrets.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Ferrets and infection model. Ferrets serologically negative for influenza virus were obtained from Marshall Farms (North Rose, NY) and bred in the Animal Resource Center at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The offspring were weaned at the age of 6 weeks and used in the study at the age of 7 weeks. Infectious agents were administered intranasally in a volume of 400 µl (200 µl/nostril) of PBS to ferrets under general anesthesia with inhaled isoflurane (3.5%). Ferrets were infected with either influenza virus or PBS and then challenged 5 days later with either pneumococcus strain A.166 lux or PBS. Clinical signs of infection were monitored, ferrets were imaged, and nasal wash samples were collected daily after the secondary challenge with bacteria or PBS. For nasal wash samples, 1 ml of PBS was injected into each nostril of ferrets sedated with ketamine intramuscularly at 100 mg/kg of body weight, and expelled samples were collected. Nasal washes were titrated for influenza virus in MDCK cells and for pneumococcal colony counts on tryptic soy agar plates supplemented with 3% (vol/vol) sheep erythrocytes. Ferrets were euthanized 4 days after the pneumococcal or PBS challenge. The lungs and heads of infected animals were removed, fixed overnight in 10% neutral buffered formalin, embedded in paraffin, sectioned at 5 µm, stained with hematoxylin-eosin, and examined microscopically for histopathologic alterations by an experienced veterinary pathologist (K.L.B. or J.E.R.) who was blinded to the composition of the groups. All animal experiments were approved by the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Animal Care and Use Committee and were performed under biosafety level 2 conditions.
Imaging of live ferrets. Anesthetized ferrets were imaged for 2 min with an IVIS charge-coupled-device camera (Xenogen Corp.). The total photon emission from selected and defined areas within the images of each animal was quantified with the LivingImage software package version 2.20 (Xenogen Corp.), as described elsewhere (9).
Statistical analysis. Comparisons between the numbers of bacteria or viruses recovered from nasal washes were done using repeated-measures analysis of variance (Holm-Sidak method). SigmaStat for Windows (SysStat Software, Inc., V 3.11) was utilized for all statistical analyses. A P value of <0.05 was considered significant for these comparisons.
| RESULTS |
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| DISCUSSION |
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Upon introduction of H1N1 viruses into humans in 1918, exceptionally high mortality was seen during the first 2 years that this subtype circulated, primarily due to bacterial pneumonia (27, 32). Thereafter, the overall mortality rate declined, but excess mortality continued to be seen (4, 5). Since H1N1 viruses reentered the population in 1976, however, very little excess mortality has occurred during years where H1N1 viruses were the predominant circulating strain, and the relative contribution of bacterial superinfections to excess mortality has declined (33, 36). Similarly, influenza B viruses, which caused notable excess mortality early in the 20th century (4), have contributed very little to excess mortality in the past several decades (33, 36). Since their introduction in 1968, H3N2 viruses have typically caused more excess mortality than either H1N1 or influenza B viruses. The differences in secondary complications reported here in the young ferret model, comparing H3N2 viruses to H1N1 or influenza B viruses, support the concept that these observed differences in epidemiology have a virologic basis.
Although the mechanisms underlying the synergistic interaction between influenza viruses and pneumococcus are poorly understood, it is clearly a multifactorial process (21). It is likely that multiple viral virulence factors contribute by affecting the host in ways that benefit the bacteria. Differences in these virulence factors may account for differences in bacterial complication rates seen between different strains. We have characterized one such virulence factor, the NA (29). NA activity of the virus enhanced adherence of pneumococcus to epithelial cells in vitro and predisposed to fatal pneumonia in a mouse model (20). The secondary bacterial pneumonia could be prevented or treated using an inhibitor of the influenza virus NA, independent of the effect on viral lung load (19, 20). Pairs of otherwise isogenic viruses engineered by reverse genetics to express different N2 NAs differentially contributed to both adherence and pneumonia at a rate proportional to their NA activity (30). N2 subtype viruses in general have higher NA activities than recently circulating N1 or influenza B virus strains, which may account for some of the differences in excess mortality seen when comparing H2N2 or H3N2 seasons to seasons where H1N1 or influenza B viruses predominate. The two seasons with the highest excess mortality in the last 50 years are the 1957 to 1958 and 1997 to 1998 seasons (33, 36), during which the two viruses with the highest NA activities circulated (30).
Another intriguing possibility is that the newly recognized PB1-F2 protein plays a role in priming the host for secondary bacterial infections. PB1-F2 is a short protein encoded in the +1 reading frame of the PB1 gene and containing an amphipathic helical domain and a mitochondrial targeting sequence that are involved in induction of cell death (2, 10). Influenza B viruses do not express this protein, and H1N1 viruses circulating after 1956 have a predicted truncation in the protein which would eliminate the C-terminal region encoding the mitochondrial targeting sequence and helical domain. One could speculate that any effects on virulence mediated by PB1-F2 might aid in priming the host for secondary bacterial infections, and the presence of the full-length protein in H3N2 viruses would enhance their support for such infections relative to H1N1 or influenza B viruses. In addition to the possibilities discussed here, it is likely that as-yet-unappreciated strain-specific differences in other viral virulence factors also contribute to the differences in the rates of complications observed with different strains of influenza virus.
In summary, we have developed a young ferret model of secondary bacterial otitis and sinusitis to address the economically important question of how antecedent respiratory virus infections prime the host for pyogenic infections with pneumococcus at normally sterile sites. Using this model, we are able to reproduce experimentally the epidemiologic observation that H3N2 subtype viruses are better partners with pneumococcus in the induction of these superinfections than are other influenza viruses. We speculate that strain-specific differences in viral virulence factors account for this finding, and we discuss some of the virulence factors that may be involved. A corollary of this hypothesis is that strain-specific differences in S. pneumoniae may account for differences in the invasiveness of different pneumococcal strains. These differences may achieve prominence in the setting of antecedent viral infection.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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