Review of the clinical effectiveness of the neuraminidase inhibitors against influenza B viruses
- Authors: Farrukee, Rubaiyea , Mosse, Jennifer , Hurt, Aeron
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Expert Review of Anti-Infective Therapy Vol. 11, no. 11 (2013), p. 1135-1145
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Influenza A and B viruses cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide each year. The neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs) are the most commonly used class of influenza antiviral drugs for the treatment of infected patients. In vitro studies have shown that influenza B viruses are significantly less susceptible to oseltamivir and other neuraminidase inhibitors compared with influenza A viruses. Following analysis of published clinical studies, we show that oseltamivir does appear to have lower effectiveness in patients infected with influenza B virus compared with influenza A infected patients, but due to insufficient studies on zanamivir, laninamivir or peramivir, it was not possible to conclude the relative effectiveness of these drugs against influenza A virus compared with B virus.
Influenza viruses with B/Yamagata- and B/Victoria-like neuraminidases are differentially affected by mutations that alter antiviral susceptibility
- Authors: Farrukee, Rubaiyea , Leang, Sookkwan , Butler, Jeff , Lee, Raphael , Maurer-Stroh, Sebastian , Tilmanis, Danielle , Sullivan, Sheena , Mosse, Jennifer , Barr, Ian , Hurt, Aeron
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Vol. 70, no. 7 (2015), p. 2004-2012
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Objectives: The burden of disease due to influenza B is often underestimated. Clinical studies have shown that oseltamivir, a widely used neuraminidase inhibitor (NAI) antiviral drug, may have reduced effectiveness against influenza B viruses. Therefore, it is important to study the effect of neuraminidase mutations in influenza B viruses that may further reduce NAI susceptibility, and to determine whether these mutations have the same effect in the two lineages of influenza B viruses that are currently circulating (B/Yamagata-like and B/Victoria-like). Methods: We characterized the effect of 16 amino acid substitutions across five framework residues and four monomeric interface residues on the susceptibility to four different NAIs (oseltamivir, zanamivir, peramivir and laninamivir). Results: Framework residue mutations E117A and E117G conferred highly reduced inhibition to three of the four NAIs, but substantially reduced neuraminidase activity, whereas other framework mutations retained a greater level of NA activity. Mutations E105K, P139S and G140R of the monomeric interface were also found to cause highly reduced inhibition, but, interestingly, their effect was substantially greater in a B/Victoria-like neuraminidase than in a B/Yamagata-like neuraminidase, with some susceptibility values being up to 1000-fold different between lineages. Conclusions: The frequency and the effect of key neuraminidase mutations on neuraminidase activity and NAI susceptibility can differ substantially between the two influenza B lineages. Therefore, future surveillance, analysis and interpretation of influenza B virus NAI susceptibility should consider the B lineage of the neuraminidase in the same manner as already occurs for different influenza A neuraminidase subtypes.