Comparative analysis of receptor-binding specificity and pathogenicity in natural reassortant and non-reassortant H3N2 swine influenza virus

Genetic reassortment between human and avian influenza viruses can create pandemic viruses. Influenza surveillance of pigs in Jilin Province, in China during 2007-2008 revealed that there were two distinguishable genotypes: a human-like H3N2 genotype and a double-reassortant genotype derived from the human H3N2 and avian H5 viruses. In this study, viral infection potential, replication kinetics, and pathogenicity were compared. The solid-phase binding assay demonstrated that both viruses prominently maintained a preference for the human-type receptor and the reassortant A/swine/Jilin/37/2008 (Sw/JL/37/08) showed relatively higher binding affinities than the non-reassortant A/swine/Jilin/19/2007 (Sw/JL/19/07). Replication kinetics showed that Sw/JL/37/08 had higher replicability in MDCK cells than Sw/JL/19/07. The mouse experiments clearly revealed that Sw/JL/37/08 had higher virulence than Sw/JL/19/07 as measured by more significant body weight loss, higher viral lung load, delayed viral clearance from lungs, and more severe pulmonary lesions. Sequence analysis indicated that the absence of glycosylation sites at residue 126 of HA and 93 of NA, as well as the characteristic NS1 C-terminal PL residues of ESEV may account for the increased replication and pathogenicity of Sw/JL/37/08. These results may imply that human may have infection risk by the reassortant swine influenza virus and emphasize the necessity for enhanced viral surveillance strategies, which monitor reassortment events in nature to reduce the public health threat posed by influenza viruses with the potential for human-to-human transmission currently circulating in pig populations.