Background
Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) causes one of the major public health problems [
1], and NoV has been reported as the most common cause of AGE [
2]. NoV is a non-enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus with a linear genome (7.5–7.7 kb), which belongs to the family Caliciviridae with three open reading frames (ORFs) encoding nine structural and nonstructural proteins [
3‐
5]. ORF1 encodes nonstructural proteins such as NTPase, protease, and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp). ORF2 overlaps ORF1 by a short region and encodes the major capsid protein, VP1. ORF3 encodes the minor capsid protein, VP2 [
6]. NoVs are highly diverse and currently sub-divided into six genomic groups (GI/GII/GIII/GIV/GV/GVI) with more than 40 genotypes based on their VP1 sequences [
7,
8].
It has been reported that NoV caused at least six pandemics of AGE (defined as taking place on at least three continents over a similar time-frame) since 1995; 1995–1996 (GII.4|US95_96), 2002–2003 (GII.4|Farmington Hills), 2004–2005 (GII.4|Hunter), 2006–2007 (GII.4|2006a_Yerseke and GII.4|2006b_Den Haag), 2009–2010 (GII.4|New Orleans) and 2012–2013 (GII.4|Sydney) [
8]. NoV exhibits over 40 genotypes co-circulating within the population, however, GII.4 has emerged only as novel variants about every 2–4 years, massive outbreaks, and pandemics [
9]. Like influenza virus, population immunity may drive the evolution of NoV and the emergences of its new variants [
10], which undergoes genetic and antigenic evolution through accumulation of point mutations and intra- and inter-genotype recombinations [
11].
As awareness and knowledge about the growth of Seoul NoV epidemiology, the question has been raised how to effectively track the emergence of new NoV strains, and how to monitor the spread of them. We, therefore, tried to create a more extensive phylogenetic characterization of our data obtained from the Seoul NoV surveillance. This NoV-surveillance system aimed at controlling the spread of future NoV outbreaks by monitoring the circulating strains. Here, we presented the widespread- and newly emerged-NoV strains in Seoul and tried to characterize their molecular epidemiology in the 2014–2016 Seoul surveillance. During the 3-year study period, we have observed novel epidemic strains found in global distribution, however, their sub-lineages showed different scale and impact in distribution or prevalence along with co-circulating strains in Seoul. Here, we also reported sporadic strains developed into outbreaks in our NoV-surveillance system. Total 1008 sequences were analyzed phylogenetically in the five different NoV models (GI/GII.4/GII.17/GII.3/other types of GII).
Discussion
To characterize phylogenetic epidemiology of NoV strains circulating in Seoul, we first conducted an extensive phylogenetic analysis based on partial VP1 sequences of total 1008 NoV (794 NoV positives from 4073 AGE specimens and 214 global references from NoroNet and GenBank). This extensive phylogenetic analysis revealed the monthly prevalence and distribution of NoV strains widespread in Seoul and their phylogenetic relationships with global reference strains. Through the five phylogenetic trees (GI/GII.4/GII.17/GII.3/other types of GII) obtained from the NoV-surveillance in 2014–2016, we could track emergences of the new strains and determine the trends of circulating strains in Seoul (Figs.
4,
5,
6,
7,
8).
In the GI phylogenetic tree, the three sporadic sequences (GI.4|Valetta, GI.3|Beijing55042 and GI.5|Musgrove) found in 2014 were identical to the nine outbreaks in 2015–2016. They were also identical to the global strains (AB545482 and KT383937 in GI.4|Valetta, KT438804 in GI.3|Beijing55042, and AB662916 and KT383943 in GI.5|Musgrove) collected from human stools of Japan in 2008 and 2010, and from sea-water and stream-waters of Korea in 2014 and 2015 (Fig.
4). The data can suggest that the origin of Seoul sporadic GI strains may come from Japan.
In the three major phylogenetic trees of GII.4, GII.17 and GII.3, all the strains reported in the present study were the same as the global strains reported in NoroNet and GenBank. In the GII.17 phylogenetic tree, the first occurrence was detected as GII.17|Kawasaki323 (AB983218) in July 2014, which was identical to the new GII.P17-GII.17 reported in March 2014 in Japan [
19]. The new GII.17 was 96% homologous in the amino acid sequences with the GII.17 strain reported in Korea by KCDC [
20]. Since first emergence of GII.17|Kawasaki323, GII.17|CUHK-NS-616 and GII.17|Kawasaki308 sharply increased during the winter in 2014–2015, and the GII.17 became the first dominant genotype in Seoul in January 2015 (Figs.
3 and
6). This epidemicity was well accordant with the global trend of the new GII.17 (GII.17|Kawasaki). According to the previous report by KCDC, the GII.17, previously considered as a minor type in Korea, is the predominant NoV since December 2014 [
20]. During the winter in 2014–2015, the new GII.17 also emerged and became the predominant genotype in Japan [
19], several major cities in mainland China [
21,
22], and HongKong [
23]. The new GII.P17-GII.17 was also detected sporadically outside of Asia such as Italy, Romania, and the United States [
24‐
26]. In our previous surveillance data during 2008–2011, 15 sporadic GII.17 were detected three times; 13 in March 2008, one in August 2008 and one in November 2010 [
14]. The sporadic GII.17 in Seoul might be different from the past and current prevalent strains. The GII.17 detected in this study was presumed to be the new GII.17 that caused a pandemic since the winter of 2014.
In our sporadic data, GII.4 was still the most prevalent genotype (50.92%, 138/271 positives) during the Seoul NoV-surveillance in 2014–2016 (Tables
2,
3 and Figs.
3,
5). In the NoV GII.4 phylogenetic tree, all the sporadic GII.4 sequences were tightly clustered together, and largely sub-divided into two sub-clusters (GII.4|2012 and GII.4|2016) (Figs.
2 and
5). These sub-clusters showed distinct difference from the sporadic strains to outbreaks and seasonal epidemics. According to the previous report about GII.4|2012_Sydney, it was the most frequently found sub-genotype (60.4%) during November 2012 and January 2013 in Korea [
27]. GII.4|2012_Sydney was still the most frequently found sub-genotype (51.69%, 46/89 positives) of the Seoul NoV-surveillance in 2014 (Fig.
5). Since November 2015, GII.4|2012 was replaced internally by novel GII.4|2016_Kawasaki194 (NOR-2565/NOR-2558/OH16002) that was the variants of GII.4|2012_Sydney (JX459908). The sharply increased sporadic NoV in the winter of 2015 (Fig.
3) was mainly caused by II.4|2016_Kawasaki194 (LC175468) that was first detected from AGE patients in Kawasaki City in 2016 [
28]. Since its first detection, GII.4|2016_Kawasaki194 spread very rapidly and caused sporadic NoV explosion, which raised the average NoV detecion rate from 13.17% (89/676 samples in 2014) to 20.61% (108/524 samples in 2016) during the present study period. Due to unusually high NoV activity, seasonal epidemic curve in 2016 was skewed to the novel “right-sided W-shaped” curve (Fig.
3). By reanalyzing the Seoul NoV-surveillance data in 2007–2013, we found that the epidemic curve in 2007 was similar with our novel “right-sided W-shape” curve in 2016 (dotted box in Fig.
3). Additional evolution studies are required to investigate why the estimated GII.4|2006b and GII.4|2016_Kawasaki194 strains spreaded more rapidly and caused heavy explosions in Seoul in 2007 and 2016 compared to other pandemic strains. In the II.4|2016_Kawasaki194 sub-cluster, our 11 sporadic sequences were identical to four global strains (KY887601, KY905335, KX764665 and KX764664), which were collected from human stools and stream waters in January and September 2016. Above-mentioned four global strains and the II.4|2016_Kawasaki194 strain were all reported as GII.P16-GII.4 Sydney2012 recombinants [
29,
30]. The first appearance of the Seoul sporadic Kawasaki194 strain was in November 2015, which is at least a few months ahead of identical global strains and the II.4|2016_Kawasaki194 candidate standard strain.
In our outbreak data, GII.3 and GII.2 exploded and caused huge outbreaks during the winter of 2016 (Figs.
7 and
8). Although sporadic GII.3 became the predominant genotype in last quarter of 2016 from the Seoul NoV-surveillance (Figs.
3 and
7), sporadic GII.2 remains low until December 2016 (Figs.
3 and
8). Although GII.3|Hu/3-28/2015/HNZZ/CHN strain caused heavy outbreaks in Seoul since November 2016, the most dominant strain in the Seoul NoV-surveillance was not GII.3|Hu/3-28/2015/HNZZ/CHN but GII.3|Hu/Aichio334-13/2013 (Fig.
7). In the GII.3 phylogenetic analysis, we also observed that GII.3|Hu/Aichio334-13/2013, the dominant strain in 2014, could not develop outbreak in Seoul, whereas GII.3|Hu/3-28/2015/HNZZ/CHN rapidly developed outbreak. We, here, suggest that the sporadic GII.3|Hu/3-28/2015/HNZZ/CHN might be a GII.P16-GII.3 variant. Although sporadic GII.2 and GII.6 were detected at low prevalence during the whole study period, they are important genotypes prevalent in worldwide and should be carefully monitored [
31,
32].
Limitation
We agree with the presence of several limitations in the present study to determine the geographical distribution and mechanism of the NoV outbreak. However, this study was abided by the K-CaliciNet and the national norovirus surveillance guidelines [
12]. The followings may explain potential reasons of our present limitation; First, present analysis of target sequences was confined to the partial VP1 region. Although it is not long enough to detect whole genome of NoV, the VP1 was designated as the NoV surveillance target sequences based on its high variability in sequences and efficiency. The sequencing of partial VP1 also allows large quantities of NoV to be genotyped economically with epidemiologic trends. A novel NoV lineage containing the GII.P16 polymerase and pandemic GII.4 Sydney and other GII capsid were recently detected in Asia and Europe during the winter in 2016 to 2017 [
29]. To examine NoV evolutions in recombination and surface-exposed antigenic regions, future study should be focused on exploring the large target sequences covering RdRp and complete VP1 region. Second, the 10 hospitals employed for the present study were not evenly distributed in Seoul (three out of 10 hospitals were localized in one administrative district-Gu) (Fig.
1). Although we could track new strains through phylogenetic analysis with outbreaks and global strains, it was insufficient to cover the detailed NoV transmission routes. Lastly, our sample collection was limited to the patients with symptomatic infection, however, over 30% of NoV infection is asymptomatic with shedding virus [
33].
Conclusions
During 2014–2016, we determined 17 NoV genotypes and their sub-genotypes widespread in Seoul. By the first extensive phylogenetic characterization of 1008 specimens, we could track the emergence of new NoV strains that is able to cause massive outbreak or sporadic AGE infection globally. Most of them were found to be the novel variants of three major genotypes (GII.4, GII.17 and GII.3). Main epidemiologic event in the 2014–2016 Seoul NoV surveillance was continuous emergences of novel NoV strains of GII.17 (GII.17|2014_Kawasaki lineages in 2014), GII.4 (GII.4|2016_Kawasaki194 lineages in 2015), and GII.3 (GII.3|Hu/3-28/2015/HNZZ/CHN in 2016). Our results demonstrate that emergent GII.4|2016_Kawasaki194 lineages spread throughout Seoul very rapidly and caused unusually heavy explosions, especially in Seoul in 2016 compared to other two pandemic strains (GII.4|Sydney and GII.17|Kawasaki).
By analyzing the development from sporadic strains to outbreaks in various phylogenetic trees, we can show distinctly different patterns depending on each NoV lineages. Our report has an important implication in the understanding NoV incidence and developing a treatment vaccine against NoV.
Authors’ contributions
YEK, MS, HS and EYK performed the experiments, YEK, JL, JY, YH, IK and TY examined the statistical analysis. YEK, IKL and JY wrote the manuscript. YEK conceived and designed the experiments, TJP and IKL edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.