2018•Japanese Journal of Infectious DiseasesOpen access
Comparison of Neutralizing Antibody Titers against Japanese Encephalitis Virus Genotype V Strain with Those against Genotype I and III Strains in the Sera of Japanese Encephalitis Patients in Japan in 2016
Takahiro Maeki, Shigeru Tajima, Aung Kyaw Kyaw, F. Matsumoto, Kana Miura, Ayaka Yamashita, Akira Yoshikawa, Kodai Negishi, Yuji Noguchi, Koh Tadokoro, Kōji Abe, Junko Taruya, Jinsoo Koh, Hidefumi Ito, Asaka Ikegaya, Fuyuki Abe, Mieko Wada, Tsuyoshi Nishigata, Makiko Ikeda, Fumihiro Kato, Satoshi Taniguchi, Eri Nakayama, Tomohiko Takasaki, Kouichi Morita, Chang‐Kweng Lim, Masayuki Saijo
Open full text 16 citations
Abstract
Japanese encephalitis (JE) is an acute viral disease caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). JEV strains are classified into 5 genotypes (I-V). JEV genotype V strains have never been detected in Japan to date, but they were recently detected in South Korea. In the present analysis, we tried to determine if a JEV genotype V strain caused any JE case in Japan in 2016. Serum and cerebrospinal fluid samples were collected from 10 JE patients reported in Japan in 2016. JEV RNA was not detected in any of the samples. Although JEV is a single-serotype virus, it can be expected that the neutralizing antibody titers against JEV genotype V strains are higher than those against genotype I and III strains in the serum of patients with JE in Japan whose causative JEV was the genotype V strain. The neutralizing antibody titers against the JEV genotype V strain were not higher than those against the genotype I or III strain in any serum samples. Therefore, the evidence that the JEV genotype V strain caused any JE case in Japan in 2016 was absent.
Open-access reader