A Molecularly Cloned, Live-Attenuated Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine SA(14)-14-2 Virus: A Conserved Single Amino Acid in the ij Hairpin of the Viral E Glycoprotein Determines Neurovirulence in Mice

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus that causes fatal neurological disease in humans, is one of the most important emerging pathogens of public health significance. JEV represents the JE serogroup, which also includes West Nile, Murray Valley encephalitis, and St. Louis encephalitis viruses. Within this serogroup, JEV is a vaccine-preventable pathogen, but the molecular basis of its neurovirulence remains unknown. Here, we constructed an infectious cDNA of the most widely used live-attenuated JE vaccine, SA(14)-14-2, and rescued from the cDNA a molecularly cloned virus, SA(14)-14-2(MCV), which displayed in vitro growth properties and in vivo attenuation phenotypes identical to those of its parent, SA(14)-14-2. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of neurovirulence, we selected three independent, highly neurovirulent variants (LD(50), <1.5 PFU) from SA(14)-14-2(MCV) (LD(50), >1.5×10(5) PFU) by serial intracerebral passage in mice. Complete genome sequence comparison revealed a total of eight point mutations, with a common single G(1708)→A substitution replacing a Gly with Glu at position 244 of the viral E glycoprotein. Using our infectious SA(14)-14-2 cDNA technology, we showed that this single Gly-to-Glu change at E-244 is sufficient to confer lethal neurovirulence in mice, including rapid development of viral spread and tissue inflammation in the central nervous system. Comprehensive site-directed mutagenesis of E-244, coupled with homology-based structure modeling, demonstrated a novel essential regulatory role in JEV neurovirulence for E-244, within the ij hairpin of the E dimerization domain. In both mouse and human neuronal cells, we further showed that the E-244 mutation altered JEV infectivity in vitro, in direct correlation with the level of neurovirulence in vivo, but had no significant impact on viral RNA replication. Our results provide a crucial step toward developing novel therapeutic and preventive strategies against JEV and possibly other encephalitic flaviviruses.