Enterovirus 68 in children with acute respiratory tract infections, Osaka, Japan

Abstract

Enterovirus 68 strains were detected in 14 specimens from children with respiratory tract infections and 1 specimen from a child with febrile convulsions during 2010 in Osaka, Japan. These strains had deletions in the 5' untranslated region and were genetically different from reported strains. This virus is associated with respiratory tract infections in Japan.

Figure 1

Monthly distribution of enterovirus 68 (EV68) in Osaka, Japan, October 2009–October 2010, Bars indicate no. specimens positive for EV68 and line indicates no. specimens tested.

Figure 2

Phylogenetic tree of enterovirus 68 viral protein 1 gene sequences constructed by using a 927-nt sequence corresponding to nt sequence 2355–3281 in strain 37–99, Osaka, Japan, October 2009–October 2010. Tree was constructed by using the neighbor-joining method. Sequences were aligned by using Clustal X version 1.81. (www.clustal.org/). Genetic distances between sequences were calculated by using the Kimura 2-parameter method. Bootstrap values from 1,000 replicates are shown at the nodes. Location and year of collection are shown in parentheses. GenBank accession numbers for strains used in this analysis were Fermon, AY426531; 37–99, EF107098; JPOC10–200, AB601872; JPOC10–290, AB601882; JPOC10–373, AB601873; JPOC10–378, AB601883; JPOC10–396, AB601884; JPOC10–402, AB601874; JPOC10–404, AB601885; JPOC10–412, AB601875; JPOC10–441, AB601876; JPOC10–445, AB601877; JPOC10–471, AB601878; JPOC10–573, AB601879; JPOC10–616, AB601880; JPOC10–618, AB601881; MD02–1, AY426491; TX02–1, AY426495; MO00, AY426493; WI00, AY426494; MN98, AY426497; TX99, AY426498; MD99, AY426499; TX03, AY426500; MN89, AY426489; NY93, AY426490; EV70, D00820; and EV94, DQ916376. Scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per site.

Figure A1

Nucleotide sequences of 5′ untranslated regions of enterovirus 68 strains, Osaka, Japan, October 2009–October 2010. The strain detected in Osaka showed deletions when compared with Fermon and 37–99 strains. Arrow indicates the start codon (ATG) of the viral protein 4 (VP4) gene. Partial nucleotide sequences (corresponding to nt 541–820 of the Fermon strain) of 5′ untranslated regions of Fermon, 37–99, JPOC10–290, JPOC10–378, JPOC10–396, JPOC10–404, and EVP4 primer were aligned by using BioEdit version 7.09 (www.mbio.ncsu.edu/bioedit/bioedit.html). Hyphens indicate deleted nucleotides.