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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, March 2003, p. 1203-1211, Vol. 41, No. 3
0095-1137/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.41.3.1203-1211.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Laboratory of Clinical Virology, WHO Regional Reference Laboratory on Poliomyelitis,1 Laboratory of Immunology, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Immunology, Institut Pasteur de Tunis ,2 Pediatrics Department, Bone Marrow Transplantation Center, Tunis, Tunisia3
Received 11 February 2002/ Returned for modification 29 October 2002/ Accepted 14 December 2002
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In line with the WHO's strategy for eradicating poliomyelitis, a two-round NID was conducted in October and November 1996 in Tunisia. All children under 5 years received two doses of OPV. The present study was conducted in 16 children with well-characterized primary immunodeficiencies (4), thus excluded from OPV vaccination during the NIDs, to assess the risk of community-acquired poliovirus infection in these patients and to study the dynamics of enteric viral excretion and the genetic variation of excreted viruses.
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TABLE 1. Clinical features and polio vaccination status of immunodeficient patients in this studya
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FIG. 1. Timing of stool collection, virus excretion and strains characteristics. Symbols: open oval, stool collected, enterovirus negative; oval with slash, stool not collected; rectangle, poliovirus type1, SL by Po-Ab ELISA; filled oval, poliovirus type1, NSL by Po-Ab ELISA; triangle, poliovirus type 3, SL by Po-Ab ELISA, plus sign, isolate sequenced.
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Intratypic differentiation (ITD). In order to establish whether the poliovirus isolates were of vaccine or wild origin, they were tested by three methods recommended by the WHO for polio surveillance: (i) an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using cross-absorbed intratype-specific rabbit antisera (Po-Ab ELISA), allowing detection of antigenic differences between non-Sabin and Sabin-derived strains (15), (ii) a hybridization assay using riboprobes hybridizing specifically with the genome of vaccine-related isolates (8), and (iii) a reverse transcription-PCR amplifying a 480-nucleotide sequence in the VP1-2A region of the genome followed by digestion with restriction enzymes and analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP), in comparison with the electrophoretic patterns of Sabin strains (3). All assays were performed as described by the respective authors.
Sequence analysis. Complete VP1 and partial 2A sequences (nucleotides 2480 to 3445) were determined. Amplification and sequencing assays used UC13 (nucleotides 3629 to 3648 5'-TAGTCATTAGCTTCCATGTA-3') or UC1 (nucleotides 2861 to 2881, 5'-GAATTCCATGTCAAATCTAGA-3') as reverse primers and UG19 (nucleotides 2870 to 2891, 5'-GACATGGAATTCACCTTTGTGG-3') or UG1 (nucleotides 2402 to 2421, 5'-TTTGTGTCAGCGTGTAATGA-3') as upstream primers. The amplified DNAs were purified by the Qiaex PCR purification kit (Qiagen) and then sequenced in the forward and reverse directions, using an automated sequencer (ABI PRISM 377-3.0). Analysis of VP1/2A sequences used DNA Strider 1.2 and Clustal V programs.
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ITD. All poliovirus isolates were analyzed by three ITD methods. Probe hybridization and PCR-RFLP analysis confirmed the vaccine-derived origin of all poliovirus type 1 (n = 11) and poliovirus type 3 (n = 2) isolates: thus, a positive signal was obtained with homotypic Sabin-specific probes (Fig. 2) and RFLP analysis of the VP1/2A region using HaeIII, HpaII, and DdeI restriction enzymes, gave a pattern similar to that of corresponding Sabin strains (Fig. 3). Po-Ab ELISA also confirmed the vaccine-derived origin of the two poliovirus type 3 isolates; however, it disclosed a strikingly aberrant phenotype for 9 out of the 11 poliovirus type 1 isolates, excreted by patients 7, 9, and 6, which exhibited a non-Sabin-like (NSL) phenotype (Fig. 1 and 4).
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FIG. 2. Intratypic differentiation using Sabin-specific riboprobe hybridization. Hybridization with the enterovirus-specific probe (a), Sabin 1-specific probe (b), and Sabin 3-specific probe (c). Samples were blotted to the nylon membrane and duplicates were used for each probe. The Sabin 1 control reacted positively with the enterovirus-specific probe (reactions A1 and B1) and the Sabin 1 specific probe (reactions A6 and B6). Wild poliovirus type 1 control reacted positively with the enterovirus-specific probe (reactions C1 and D1) and did not react with the Sabin 1-specific probe (reactions C6 and D6). The Sabin 3 control reacted positively with the enterovirus-specific probe (reactions C4 and D4) and the Sabin 3-specific probe (reactions A10 and B10). Wild poliovirus type 3 control reacted positively with the enterovirus-specific probe (reactions E4 and F4) and did not react with the Sabin 3-specific probe (reactions C10 and D10). All strains isolated from the patients reacted with the enterovirus-specific probe and the Sabin-specific probe from the same serotype: 7-2 (reactions E1, F1, E6, and F6), 7-9 (reactions G1, H1, G6, and H6), 9-2 (reactions A2, B2, A7, and B7), 9-3 (reactions C2, D2, C7, and D7), 9-4 (reactions E2, F2, E7, and F7), 9-5 (reactions G2, H2, G7, and H7), 9-6 (reactions A3, B3, A8, and B8), 9-7 (reactions C3, D3, C8, and D8), 9-8 (reactions E3, F3, E8, and F8), 9-9 (reactions G3, H3, G8, and H8), 6-4 (reactions A4, B4, A9, and B9), 12-4 (reactions G4, H4, E10, and F10), 12-5 (reactions A5, B5, G10, and H10). The film image was generated using Adobe Photoshop software.
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FIG. 3. Intratypic differentiation by PCR-RFLP analysis. Ethidium bromide-stained 3% agarose gel showing the RFLP patterns of the different patient isolates and those of Sabin 1 and Sabin 3 strains. The panels show PCR products digested by HaeIII, HpaII, and DdeI. Lanes1 and 19 correspond to the molecular weight marker (PhiX digested with HaeIII); lanes 2 and 4 correspond to nondigested amplification products of Sabin 1 and Sabin 3, respectively; lanes 3 and 5 correspond to the digested amplification products of Sabin 1 and Sabin 3, respectively; and lanes 6 to 18 correspond to the patient poliovirus isolates (7-2, 7-9, 9-2, 9-3, 9-4, 9-5, 9-6, 9-7, 9-8, 9-9, 6-4, 12-4, and 12-5, respectively). The gel image was generated using Adobe Photoshop software.
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FIG. 4. Intratypic differentiation by Po-Ab ELISA. Symbols: open circle, background; filled circle, poliovirus type1 NSL control (Mahoney); shaded circle, poliovirus type 1 SL control (Sabin 1); filled square, poliovirus type 3 NSL control (Finland); shaded square, poliovirus type3 SL control (Sabin 3); filled triangle, patients' isolates with NSL phenotype; shaded triangle, patients' isolates with SL phenotype. The figure shows the reactivity of controls and patients' isolates with unabsorbed antisera specific to all polioviruses type1 (a) or type3 (d) and with cross absorbed antisera specific to SL-polio1 (b), NSL-polio1 (c), SL-polio3 (e) and NSL-polio3 (f) viruses.
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FIG. 5. Partial nucleotide (a) and deduced amino acid (b) sequences of serotype 1 isolates compared to the reference Sabin 1 strain. Numbering of nucleotides was done according to the method of Toyoda et al. (30). The NAgI to NAgIII are shown in boldface type. Capsid amino acid residues are numbered starting from residue 1 of VP1.
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Since the beginning of the era of vaccination against poliomyelitis, the property of OPV strains to spread from vaccinees to susceptible individuals has been considered advantageous, as it results in immunization of individuals who may have escaped vaccination. Recent studies provided indirect evidence of vaccine virus spread to nonvaccinated individuals in the general population, either during mass vaccination campaigns (24, 28) or secondary to routine vaccination with OPV (7); the estimated rates of secondary transmission range from 9 to 65%. In our study, 4 out of 16 patients (25%) were infected; this rate of horizontal transmission to immunocompromised patients does not indicate higher susceptibility to polio infection. Molecular analysis of excreted polioviruses confirmed that they resulted from a recent infection, most likely during NIDs. Indeed, during replication of vaccine viruses in individuals and their transmission from person-to-person in the community, mutations will accumulate. The duration of circulation or excretion of a vaccine-derived poliovirus strain can be estimated by determining the extent of its divergence from the original Sabin strain, the rate of nucleotide changes per year, at synonymous third-base codon position, in the VP1/2A region of the genome, being approximately 3.3% (19, 23). In our study, isolates excreted by all four infected patients were very close to the original Sabin strains, with less than 1% nucleotide divergence, including coding mutations.
Most studies reporting vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis concerned patients with agamma- or hypogammaglobulinemia (29, 37). It is likely that the absence of specific antibodies to polioviruses in these patients is responsible for the lack of viral neutralization during the viremic phase, which precedes neurological localization. On the other hand, prolonged virus replication and excretion without paralysis may be the consequence of defects in other antiviral effector mechanisms. T-cell immunodeficiencies have been reported to be associated with persistence of other enteric viral infections (32). In our series, two polio-infected patients were affected with X-LHIGM and one was infected with CVID. These two immunodeficiencies are basically characterized by a T-cell defect, which not only impairs antibody production by B cells but also affects T-cell effector functions. Thus, X-LHIGM is due to mutations in the CD40 ligand (CD40L) gene, normally expressed by activated T cells (9). On the other hand, a subset of CVIDs is also a result of defective expression of CD40L (12). We have confirmed that patients 7 and 9 totally lacked CD40L expression, whereas patient 6 had a decreased expression of this molecule (unpublished data). Interestingly, several reports recently stressed the critical role of CD40-CD40L interactions in the generation of functional CD4 and CD8 T cells and in the amplification of the mucosal CD8-T-cell responses (2, 6, 20). In our study, patient 6 rapidly stopped poliovirus excretion; the two other patients (patients 7 and 9) excreted the virus during at least 7 weeks. A literature review on the duration of poliovirus excretion showed that fecal excretion of vaccine viruses continues beyond the fifth week in less than 20% of immunized individuals (1). Although the excretion period of at least 7 weeks observed in the two patients affected with X-LHIGM may be considered to be slightly prolonged, the fact that these patients ultimately cleared viral infection suggests the intervention of CD40L-independent viral T-cell control mechanisms, as recently reported in experimental models (21). Substitutive immunoglobulin therapy prescribed to the three patients may have contributed to the clearance of the virus. It has been previously suggested that patients treated with immunoglobulins could be more resistant to infection and only few of them become long-term excretors (22). Finally, the fourth infected patient (patient 12) had idiopathic disseminated BCGitis, the molecular basis for which is heterogeneous, involving either a T-cell or a macrophage defect (11). Although the specific molecular defect in this patient is currently unknown, the kinetics of viral excretion indicates a rapid control of poliovirus replication.
Previous studies reported immunodeficient patients who converted to long-term viral excretors shortly after receiving OPV vaccine, thus corresponding to massive infecting doses (5, 19, 23). The fact that the patients investigated herein were indirectly infected from the community likely implies lower infecting doses, lower risk of establishing infection and better chance to rapidly clear the virus from the gut.
Despite the very low nucleotide divergence from the original Sabin strain, 9 (out of 11) poliovirus type 1 isolates detected in three (out of four) infected patients exhibited an aberrant NSL phenotype by Po-Ab ELISA ITD test. In contrast, probe hybridization and PCR-RFLP indicated clearly a vaccine-derived origin. Such discordances between genotype-based and phenotype-based ITD methods do exist but have been rarely noticed in field vaccine-derived strains isolated from immunocompetent vaccinees, paralytic patients, or their healthy contacts (25). Sequencing of the VP1/VP2 genomic regions of four isolates with the aberrant phenotype revealed coding mutations within or very close to the neutralizing antigenic sites I or III, similar to those reported in other vaccine derived strains of serotype1 exhibiting the same NSL characteristics by Po-Ab ELISA (19, 25). The fact that three out of four passively infected patients excreted viruses with this aberrant phenotype is very interesting. These vaccine-derived strains may have recovered higher growth or transmissibility potentials, which allowed their selection under the specific pressures which may exist in the gut of immunodeficient patients. Our results do not allow us to conclude whether the patients had picked up from the community variants which had already mutated or whether they generated these variants during replication in their gut. Interestingly, the recently reported vaccine-derived polioviruses that circulated in Egypt and caused paralytic cases of polio also expressed an NSL aberrant phenotype by ELISA (36). It should be interesting to evaluate whether such discordance between phenotypic and genotypic characteristics correlates with higher transmissibility of OPV-derived strains. These results further stress the importance of the systematic use, as already recommended by WHO (31, 35), of two different ITD methods, one based on genetic and the other on antigenic characterization of the isolates to track down such variants.
This study helps to clarify some of the issues raised by the use of massive vaccination campaigns. The risk of secondary infection does not appear to be higher in primary immunodeficient patients than in immunocompetent patients. Such secondary infections are unlikely to lead to protracted viral excretion, possibly due to the low infecting doses in person-to-person transmission compared to direct administration of OPV. Appropriate coverage by substitutive immunoglobulin therapy, where indicated, during NIDs may also help to rapidly clear the viral infection. Despite the lack of long-term excretors in our series, one might be concerned by the unusual viral variants which may be selected by these patients and may have enhanced growth and/or transmissibility potentials and, thus, be of epidemiological significance.
We thank the District Health Services and the EPI Unit (Ministry of Health of Tunisia) for their support in collecting the specimens. We are grateful to Sophie Guillot, Jean Balanant, and Francis Delpeyroux for their continued advice and to David Wood, Harrie van der Avoort, and Thomas Kindt for critical reading of the manuscript.
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