BACKGROUND:

Few studies have analyzed influenza B virus lineages based on hemagglutinin A (HA) gene sequences in southern China. The present study analyzed the HA gene and the lineages of influenza B virus isolates from Guangzhou during 2016, and compared our results with the WHO-recommended vaccine strain.

METHODS:

Ninety patients with influenza B were recruited from the First Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. Throat swab specimens of 72 patients had high viral loads. Among these 72 isolates, the HA1 domain of the HA gene in 43 randomly selected isolates was sequenced using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and analyzed using MEGA 5.05.

RESULTS:

Eight of the 90 patients (8.9%) also had influenza A virus infections. Analysis of the 43 influenza B virus isolates indicated that 34 (79.1%) were from the Victoria lineage and 9 (20.9%) were from the Yamagata lineage. A comparison isolates in our Victoria lineage with the B/Brisbane/60/2008 strain indicated 12 mutation sites in the HA1 domain, 4 of which (I132V, N144D, C196S, and E198D) were in antigenic epitopes. A comparison of isolates in our Yamagata lineage with the B/Phuket/3073/2013 stain indicated 5 mutation sites in the HA1 domain, none of which was in an antigenic epitope. None of the isolates had a mutation in regions of the neuraminidase gene (NA) that are known to confer resistance to NA inhibitors.

CONCLUSION:

In Guangzhou during 2016, most influenza B virus isolates were from the Victoria lineage, in contrast to the vaccine strain recommended by the WHO for this period.