Norovirus persistence
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Norovirus evolution: understanding and characterising the emergence of novel strains in the population
IRAS ID
171194
Contact name
Alex Astor
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Liverpool
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 7 months, 29 days
Research summary
The aims of this study are study duration and amount of norovirus shedding during acute phase of gastroenteritis and during convalescence and how this impacts on the generation of variant norovirus strains which may become epidemic. Norovirus gastroenteritis is a major infection control problem for most NHS Trusts and winter epidemics occur annually. Recurrent epidemics are believed to occur because noroviruses mutate generating variants that escape protection from previous exposure. We will use next generation sequencing methods to analyse norovirus strains present in stool samples collected from patient diagnosed with norovirus gastroenteritis, throughout the acute phase of disease and after symptom resolution (shedding phase). We will compare the norovirus genome sequences obtained to identify and characterise the emergence of variant virus strains during the shedding phase. Another fundamental knowledge gap is how long infected patients shed infectious virus for. We will quantify how much norovirus is shed in the stool and for how long while the patients have symptoms and after symptoms have disappeared; we will also investigate whether virus shed after recovery from disease is potentially infectious. For this we will evaluate a surrogate assays of norovirus infectivity; A histo-blood group antigen (HBGA) binding assay will be used to assess whether virus shed in the stool is able to bind to these host receptors which are believed to be necessary for the virus to establish infection in the gut. Finally, we would like analyse the faecal samples for the presence of norovirus specific antibodies which may correlate with recovery, but which may also render the virus shed in stool non-infectious. The data from this study will help us understand how new epidemic viruses emerge in the population and to gain a better understanding of the duration of the infectious phase and the likelihood of transmission to other susceptible people.
REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0197
Date of REC Opinion
28 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion