Co-evolution positions and rules for antigenic variants of human influenza A/H3N2 viruses
2009

Predicting Antigenic Variants of Influenza A/H3N2 Viruses

Sample size: 31959 publication Evidence: high

Author Information

Author(s): Huang Jhang-Wei, King Chwan-Chuen, Yang Jinn-Moon

Primary Institution: National Chiao Tung University

Hypothesis

Can we identify critical positions and rules for predicting antigenic variants of human influenza A/H3N2 viruses?

Conclusion

The method developed can effectively identify critical positions and rules for predicting antigenic variants of influenza A/H3N2 viruses.

Supporting Evidence

  • The model achieved prediction accuracies of 91.2% for the training set and 96.2% for the independent test set.
  • Nineteen positions with high information gain and genetic diversity were identified as critical for antigenic drift.
  • The method outperformed existing models in predicting antigenic variants.

Takeaway

The researchers created a way to find important spots on the virus that change and help predict how it will evolve, which can help make better vaccines.

Methodology

The study used decision tree analysis on hemagglutination inhibition assay data to identify critical amino acid positions and rules for predicting antigenic variants.

Potential Biases

Potential bias due to the limited number of HI data compared to sequence data.

Limitations

The study relies on hemagglutination inhibition assay data, which can be labor-intensive and may have bias sampling issues.

Participant Demographics

The study analyzed hemagglutination inhibition assay data from various influenza strains over several years.

Statistical Information

P-Value

0.01

Statistical Significance

p<0.05

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1186/1471-2105-10-S1-S41

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