Heterologous interactions between NS1 proteins from different influenza A virus subtypes/strains

• DOI: 10.1007/s11427-012-4335-6
• Publication Date: 2012-06-28T07:18:41Z
• Authors: WeiZhong Li; Heng Zhang; GeFei Wang; Chi Zhang; XiangXing Zeng; Hui Liu; XiaoXuan Chen; YanXuan Xu; KangSheng Li
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Green Fluorescent Proteins; Immunoblotting; Molecular Sequence Data; 03 medical and health sciences; Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype; Environmental Science(all); Cell Line, Tumor; Influenza, Human; Influenza A Virus, H9N2 Subtype; Animals; Humans; Immunoprecipitation; Amino Acid Sequence; Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all); Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all); Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype; Genetic Variation; 3. Good health; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Influenza in Birds; Chickens; HeLa Cells; Protein Binding

Non-structural protein 1 (NS1) of the influenza virus plays a crucial role in modulating the host immune response and facilitating virus replication. The formation of a homodimer or an oligomer is necessary for NS1 to exert its function efficiently. In the present study, the NS1 protein from the A/Shantou/602/06(H3N2) virus (herein abbreviated as NS32) was found to interact with NS1 from A/Shantou/169/06(H1N1), A/Chicken/Guangdong/1/05(H5N1) and A/Quail/Hong Kong/G1/97(H9N2) (abbreviated as NS11, NS51 and NS92, respectively) viruses, although NS32 shares 17.4%-20.9% sequence diversity with NS11, NS51 and NS92. This indicates that the heterologous interactions between NS1 proteins from different influenza A virus subtypes/ strains may be a common event during co-infection.