Nosocomial outbreak of respiratory syncytial virus subgroup B variants with the 60 nucleotides-duplicated G protein gene

In January 2001, 20 children among 40 residents under 2 years old at a nursery home in Sapporo, Japan had respiratory symptoms and were confirmed as having respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection by a conventional diagnostic kit. Nasopharyngeal aspirates were collected from four RSV-positive patients and total RNA was extracted directly from the specimens for the analysis of RSV grouping and genotyping. All four RSV strains had the same G protein gene sequence of subgroup B and were assigned to identical strains. Interestingly, the G protein gene had a duplication of 60 nucleotides at the C-terminal third of the G protein gene in which three nucleotides differed each other. The predicted polypeptide is lengthened by 20 amino acids. The clinical picture of these cases was not different from those of patients with other RSV strains. These novel mutations were thought to be introduced in vivo.