VIRAL EVOLUTION AS DRIVEN BY HOST NUTRITIONAL SELECTIVE FACTORS - INFLUENCE OF DIETARY OXIDATIVE STRESS

The endemic juvenile cardiomyopathy known as Keshan disease occurs in regions of China with poor selenium nutrition, but a role for an infec tious agent was suggested by seasonal changes in disease incidence. Mi ce fed a selenium-deficient diet suffered more heart damage than norma l mice when infected with a myocarditic coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3/20). I ncreased heart damage was also observed when CVB3/20 was inoculated in to vitamin E-deficient mice. Feeding diets deficient in either vitamin E or selenium allowed an amyocarditic coxsackievirus (CVB3/0) to beco me myocarditic. When CVB3/0 was harvested from deficient mice, passed through HeLa cells and inoculated into normal (non-deficient) mice, it retained its increased cardiovirulence. Virus obtained from the selen ium-deficient mice contained six nucleotide changes in the genome comp ared with the input strain. This is the first report of a nutritional deficiency driving changes in a viral genome. Host nutritional status could have important public health implications for the spread of infl uenza, hepatitis, polio and perhaps even AIDS.