Molecular typing and characterization of a novel genotype of EV-B93 isolated from Tibet, China

EV-B93 is a novel serotype within the Enterovirus B species and is uncommon worldwide. Currently, only one full-length genomic sequence (the prototype strain) has been deposited in the GenBank database. In this study, three EV-B93 were identified, including one from an acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) patient (named 99052/XZ/CHN/1999, hereafter XZ99052) and two from healthy children (named 99096/XZ/CHN/1999 and 99167/XZ/CHN/1999, hereafter XZ99096 and XZ99167, respectively) from Tibet in 1999 during the polio eradication program. The identity between the nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the Tibet EV-B93 strain and the EV-B93 prototype strain is 83.2%–83.4% and 96.8%–96.9%, respectively. The Tibet EV-B93 strain was found to have greater nucleotide sequence identity in the P3 region to another enterovirus EV-B107 as per a phylogenetic tree analysis, which revealed that recombination occurred. Seroepidemiology data showed that EV-B93 has not produced an epidemic in Tibet and there may be susceptible individuals. The three Tibet EV-B93 strains are temperature-resistant with prognosticative virulence, suggesting the possibility of a potential large-scale outbreak of EV-B93. The analyzed EV-B93 strains enrich our knowledge about this serotype and provide valuable information on global EV-B93 molecular epidemiology. What is more, they permit the appraisal of the serotype's potential public health impact and aid in understanding the role of recombination events in the evolution of enteroviruses.