Quantifying the importance of the key sites on haemagglutinin in determining the selection advantage of influenza virus: using A/H3N2 as an example

The recurrence of seasonal influenza epidemics is attributed to the continuous evolution of influenza viruses, which enables them to change pathogenicity and escape from human adaptive immunity (1, 2). The selection advantage of influenza virus is largely contributed by a few key amino acids (AA) substitutions on the surface glycoprotein haemagglutinin (HA) (2 –5). Identifying and measuring the importance of these key sites are crucial in understanding patterns of influenza activities. There is a growing need for efficient computational methods to characterize the contribution of AA sites in the evolution process.
Source: Journal of Infection - Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Source Type: research