Analysis of the role of Japanese encephalitis virus NS4A protein in its pathogenicity

在这项研究中，我们发现1）在NS 4A蛋白中具有3-Ile残基的日本脑炎病毒（JEV）比在蛋白中具有3-瓦尔的JEV表现出更高的神经侵袭性，2）在日本大约20%的JEV分离株在NS 4A中具有3-Ile残基，并且在3-Ile组中，我们发现了与其他3-Ile株相比毒力显著较弱的毒株，（3）JEV E蛋白123位的Ser → Asn突变对病毒的体外生长和体内致病性影响不大;（4）JEV E蛋白3'端非翻译区的短VR不影响其体外生长和小鼠体内致病性。

In this study we showed that 1) Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV)with a 3-Ile residue in NS4A protein exhibits higher neuroinvasiveness than JEV with 3-Val in the protein, 2) approximately 20% of the JEV isolates in Japan have 3-Ile residue in NS4A, and in the 3-Ile group we found a strain with significantly weaker virulence as compared with the other 3-Ile strains, 3) a Ser-to-Asn substitution at position 123 in the JEV E protein has weak impact on viral growth properties in vitro or on pathogenicity in vivo, 4) the short VR in JEV 3’ non-translated region do not affect its growth in vitro or its pathogenicity in mice.