File of photo of the Indian Scientific Institute.
The H5N1 influenza virus, which was first identified in birds three ten years ago, has now gradually found a way to people.
Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) found in a new study that the circulating 2.3.4.4B Clade H5N1 currently has specific mutations in its genome that increases its human adaptive potential.
H5N1 is the voltage of influenza virus, which bearing hemagglutinin type 5 (H5) and neuraminidases type 1 (N1) (N1), which help in the input and spread of the virus.
Predecessor
IISC said Clade represents a group of organisms that have a common ancestor.
“Clade 2.3.4.4B has infected many mammals and adapts to (inhumane) mammals, which is a concern for human adaptation. It lays them panzootic, causing unprecedented mortality in birds and mammals, along with several sporadic human infections,” Kesavardhanasannala, which is in the Biosemic, ISS department.
Increasing risk
According to Ranjana Nataraj, a collaborator of the project at the Department of Biochemistry and the first author of the study, this advantage gets the same key mutation as the tribes have pandemic flu, which could be a growing risk.
IISC said that when the influenza virus enters a new organism, it can develop genetic mutations. This helps the virus to adapt to the new host.
Scientists tried to decode whether Clade 2.3.4.4b evolved to create a major adaptations in their proteins that allow him to infect people. They also wanted to decrypt which host animals can potentially accelerate this adaptation, which gives the virus a leg when scaling the evolutionary ladder.
The Mr. Sanula team captivated the computing approach and analyzed 7,000 protein sequences of 2.3.4.4.4b H5N1 found in birds, 820 sequences from non-luminous mammals and 35,000 human sequences H1N1 and H3N2 to see which amino acids are under selection.
They used more sequence alignments (a tool to identify similar areas in multiple proteins), constructed phylogenetic trees (which represent how the species differed from their common ancestor over time) and have anotted specific variations in all H5N1 proteins infecting inhumane and human.
Increased mutation
The team found an increased number of mutations specifically in the viral polymerase complex (PA, PB2), nucleoproteins and hemagglutinin (HA) proteins.
IISC said that once these mutations have identified, the team classified them depending on whether the mutation can help the virus to expand from the inhumane mammals to a person (adaptive) or simply survive in an inhumane host (barrier).
“Finally, they developed a simple mathematical approach and estimated the human adaptive potential for Clade 2.3.4.4b,” IISC said.
The team was also able to identify animals that would probably have tribes of viruses with the highest human adaptive potential. Interestingly, viruses that can adapt to Fox hosts seemed to have a higher adaptive potential than strains adapted to cattle.
Based on their findings, scientists suggest that increased and proactive supervision measures need to be taken.
Published – August 12, 2025 21:47
