Type 2 poliovirus recombinants isolated from vaccine-associated cases and from healthy contacts in Brazil

In a previous study (Friedrich et al., 1995b) P2/Sabin-derived strains isloated in Brazil from vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP) cases and from healthy contacts were analyzed for the presence of mutations at nucleotide (nt) 481 in the 5'-noncoding region (5'NCR) and at the codon of amino acid (aa) 143 of the capsid protein VP1, that are known to increase neurovirulence. In the present study a part of the 3Dpol-coding region of these strains was sequenced (3Dpol seq.) with the aim to find recombinant strains. In the 3Dpol seq., four out of ten strains isolated from VAPP cases turned out to be recombinants: one had 3Dpol seq. from the P1/Sabin strain, while the second had a part of 3Dpol seq. both from the P2/Sabin and P1/Sabin strains; the third and fourth recombinants had 3Dpol seq. from non-vaccine strains. The strains isolated from healthy contacts of the two VAPP cases, from which type 2 vaccine/non-vaccine recombinant strains were isolated, also consisted from recombinant genomes with the same nt sequences as those of the isolates from VAPP cases, confirming the transmission of P2/Sabin-derived recombinants. Comparison of the aa sequence of the viral RNA polymerase of the P2/Sabin strain with the predicted aa sequences of these recombinants in 3Dopl seq. demonstrated that an aa 69 (Asp-->Glu)) substitution was observed in most of the recombinant genomes, while an aa 113 (Thr-->Ser) substitution was observed in all the recombinant genomes. The possibility that the genomic recombination increased the neurovirulence of these strains cannot be excluded.