Hantavirus S RNA sequence from a fatal case of HPS in New York

✍ Scribed by Huang, Cinnia; Campbell, Wayne P.; Means, Robert; Ackman, David M.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 373 KB
• Volume: 50
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9071(199609)50:1<5::aid-jmv2>3.0.co;2-5

✦ Synopsis

In April, 1995, the second fatal case of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) occurred in the northeast in a New York State resident. Using the patient's lung tissue obtained at autopsy, the S genomic RNA segment of a hantavirus, designated H-NYI, was amplified by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), cloned, and sequenced. The S RNA was found to contain 2084 nucleotides, 6 nucleotides longer than reported by Hjelle e t a / . (1995) for the virus associated with the first northeastern case (RI- 1). There were 101 nucleotide differences in the S RNA between the H-NY1 and Rl-I, which result in the prediction of a single amino-acid change in the nucleocapsid ( N ) protein. Rodents were trapped for serologic and virologic studies at the patient's residence and work site. The whitefooted mouse (Perornyscus leucopus) was the most frequently captured species and more than 50% ofthose trapped nearthe patient's residence showed serologic evidence of hantavirus infection. Using RT-PCR it was possible to amplify hantavirus S RNAsequence from the lung tissues of 8 out of 11 seropositive animals. No difference in nucleotide sequence was found between the HPS patient sequence and the P. leucopus sequence (nucleotides 189 to 599). These data are consistent with those of Hjelle et a/. (1995) in suggesting that P. leucopus is the primary rodent vector for the etiologic agent of HPS in the northeastern United States.