1. Introduction
Diarrheal diseases remain a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children under five years of age, and account for nearly 500,000 deaths annually in the world, especially in low-income countries. Enteric viruses, particularly norovirus and rotavirus, are the major etiological agents of diarrhea worldwide [
1,
2]. Since 2006, two oral, live-attenuated rotavirus vaccines (Rotarix
® and RotaTeq
®) have been implemented nationally in 98 countries, and their use has substantially reduced global child deaths from diarrheal illness [
3,
4]. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of current vaccines is lower in low- and middle-income countries compared with higher-income settings [
5]. Among other factors, host genetic characteristics have been proposed to explain this difference [
6,
7].
Rotaviruses are classified into 10 species (A to J), with species A being the major cause of infections in children [
8]. Two outer capsid proteins, VP4 (protease-sensitive protein) and VP7 (glycoprotein), are traditionally used to define the rotavirus P and G genotypes, respectively. Currently, 36 G and 51 P genotypes have been identified, among which six G genotypes (G1, G2, G3, G4, G9, and G12) and three P genotypes (P[4], P[6], P[8]) are more prevalent globally [
9]. As for noroviruses, they are dually classified based on the complete VP1 (major capsid protein) coding region, corresponding to open reading frame (ORF) 2, and on a partial RNA polymerase (RdRp) coding region located at the 3′-end of the ORF1. Ten norovirus genogroups (GI–GX) are recognized according to the VP1 classification, each being subdivided into genotypes. Genogroups GI and GII that encompass more than 30 genotypes are the main causes of human infection. Among them, the GII.4 genotype is responsible for the majority of norovirus outbreaks and sporadic cases worldwide [
10,
11]. The
RpRd gene classifies noroviruses into eight P-groups and 62 P-types [
12].
Both viruses recognize and bind to histo-blood group antigens (HBGAs) which act as host attachment factors for viral infection on enteric epithelial cells [
13,
14,
15]. Human HBGAs are highly polymorphic carbohydrates expressed on mucosal epithelial cells and the surface of erythrocytes and in biological fluids such as saliva and milk. Their synthesis occurs by the sequential addition of monosaccharides to precursor disaccharides by four major glycosyltransferases: α-1, 2-fucosyltransferase (FUT-2), α-1, 3 fucosyltransferase (FUT3) and A and B enzymes, which are coded by three main HBGA gene families, resulting in ABO (A, B and/or H antigens), Lewis (Lewis a, b, x and/or y antigens) and secretor/non-secretor HBGA phenotypes [
16]. The expression of these phenotypes are genetically determined and depend on individual HBGA genotypes, which are influenced by the composition and genetic diversity of the human population [
6]. A mutation on both alleles of the
FUT2 gene leads to inactivation of the corresponding FUT2 enzyme, and individuals possessing such polymorphism are termed non-secretors. Similarly, individuals with null alleles for the
FUT3 gene do not produce Lewis antigens, and are denominated Lewis negative [
6].
Genetic susceptibility to norovirus infection mediated by HBGA polymorphisms has been a known phenomenon for decades and, despite solid scientific evidence regarding the association between the norovirus infection, particularly with the predominant GII.4 genotype, and the secretor status, the exact role of the Lewis antigen as a susceptibility mediator remains to be better clarified [
17,
18,
19].
Less than a decade ago, in vitro studies showing the binding of the VP8* domain of the spike protein VP4 of rotavirus to HBGA paved the way for the development of epidemiological evaluations to understand the effect of HBGA differential expression in susceptibility to rotavirus infection [
14,
15]. These epidemiological studies conducted in different countries including France, Vietnam, Burkina Faso, USA, China, and Spain pointed to the same conclusion that children of the secretor phenotype were significantly more prone to suffer from diarrhea caused by P[8] and P[4] rotavirus compared to the non-secretor [
20,
21,
22,
23,
24,
25]. However, conflicting results were observed in studies conducted with children from Tunisia, where P[8] strains were found infecting both individuals of secretor and non-secretor phenotypes, and more recently in Bangladesh, where the non-secretor children were not protected from diarrhea caused by the P[8] genotype [
26,
27]. These inconsistencies suggest the need for more epidemiological studies in different populations to better understand the role of HBGA phenotypes in rotavirus infection.
In Brazil, a continental-sized country with a highly genetically admixed population, few studies have analyzed the association between norovirus infection and HBGA phenotypes [
28,
29] and there are no data yet available regarding rotavirus infection and disease. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the association between rotavirus and norovirus symptomatic infection and HBGA phenotypes, in addition to
FUT2 and
FUT3 genes polymorphisms, in children from Southeastern Brazil. In the present study, we were able to reinforce the current knowledge that secretors are more susceptible than non-secretors to infection by both rotavirus and norovirus, and that the combination of
FUT3 polymorphisms found may reflect the highly mixed Brazilian population.
4. Discussion
The interaction of rotavirus with HBGA has gained importance in the last years, with the discovery of VP8* binding to these glycans [
14,
15]. Studies have shown that this interaction is P genotype- specific, similar to that observed for VP1 of human noroviruses, and that the susceptibility or resistance to both viruses is largely dependent on the presence or absence of HBGA on gut epithelial surfaces. In addition, the association between the secretor status and infection, initially demonstrated for noroviruses, has also been shown by recent studies for rotavirus, which has demonstrated a correlation between infection and the presence of a functional FUT2 phenotype [
23,
42,
43,
44].
In this study, we have shown the association between the HBGA secretor status and rotavirus and noroviruses infection in Brazilian children, a finding that is consistent with previous epidemiological investigations worldwide [
18,
20,
21,
22,
23,
24,
25]. Our data add further support to this notion and contribute to the understanding of this association in a highly mixed population like the Brazilian one.
Due to the circulation of emerging P[8]-4 strains [
45] with distinct glycan-binding patterns that allow non-secretors to be more prone to infection [
46], we searched for possible mutations on the VP8* glycan-binding amino acid sequence of the P[8] strain that infected the non-secretor patient in our study. The analysis of the patient’s VP8* P[8], as well as of the other P[8] strains (all classical P[8]-3 strains) detected in the study, did not demonstrate variations both on conserved and non-conserved residues, compared to other classical P[8] strains detected in the world. Thus, variations on VP8* could not explain the patient’s infection. One hypothesis is that this child was poorly immunized, possibly in part because of his HBGA status (non-secretor), and also because he received only one dose of the Rotarix
® vaccine. Later on, the patient may have ingested a large dose of the virus and became ill. We are not dealing with an all or nothing phenomenon and amounts likely matter. This could well be a difference between countries or regions concerning the quality of sanitation and hygiene.
P[8] and P[4] rotavirus genotypes cause more than 90% of the pediatric diarrhea cases in the world, including in Brazil [
47]. These data are consistent with those observed in the present study in which all the rotavirus detected belonged to these two genotypes. The fact that P[8] and P[4] genotypes recognize Le
b and H type 1 antigens, expressed only in secretor individuals, may explain the worldwide predominance of these genotypes [
24,
48]. Although the frequency of the secretor phenotype varies across populations, approximately 80% of the world population are secretors [
16]. In Brazil, the prevalence of this phenotype revealed in the few studies, is somewhat similar, ranging from 75% to 90% [
28,
49,
50,
51]. The 82% of secretors in the control group found in the present study were therefore consistent with these previous observations. The most common
FUT2 mutation, G428A, was observed in all non-secretor children in our study, which contrasts with a recent study performed in North of South America with Amazonian children from Brazil, Venezuela, and English Guyana, where this common
FUT2 gene mutation was not detected [
50]. These results highlight the importance of studying the influence of
FUT2 polymorphisms on susceptibility to enteric viruses in populations of different geographic locations, such as those from Latin America.
Apart from studying the susceptibility to natural rotavirus infection, some studies have been focused on the role of HBGA on the rotavirus vaccine response. In this regard, some argue that the differential efficacy of the two main rotavirus vaccines (Rotarix
® and RotaTeq
®) between low-income and high-income countries may be linked to the different HBGA expression in the population. Indeed, higher vaccine take has been observed in children with the secretor phenotype, compared to non-secretors [
43,
52,
53]. Interestingly, in a recent study assessing the association of rotavirus shedding and the HBGA profile in a birth community-cohort in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a mutation in the 167 position of the VP8* P[8] gene was detected in many samples characterized as Rotarix
® strain (RV1) [
54]. Moreover, Le
a+b+ secretor children were significantly more likely to shed this mutant strain compared to non-secretors. Based on these results, it was suggested that the RV1-vaccine replication triggered by this mutational event led to a more robust immune response in these children [
54].
In our study, the majority (72%) of the children were vaccinated against rotavirus, particularly with Rotarix®, and this may be considered as introducing a bias, since one may expect non-secretors to be less well vaccinated than secretors. However, rotavirus infected children are still mostly secretors indicating that no such bias occurred, either the secretor status may not have been an important factor in determining vaccine efficacy, or that the most important factor is the genetic susceptibility at the time of infection.
The globally predominant norovirus genotype GII.4, detected in most of our samples (76%), infected only children with the secretor phenotype. These results further confirm the secretor specificity of the GII.4 genotype previously observed through epidemiological studies conducted in different countries such as Burkina Faso, China, Ecuador, USA, Nicaragua, and Vietnam [
18,
21,
55,
56,
57,
58]. Furthermore, among the GII.4, all belonged to the GII.4 Sydney variant which has already been shown to be secretor-specific [
18]. Although still unclear, the reasons for the global dominance of GII.4 are at least partially linked to its HBGA-binding characteristics. GII.4 strains bind to glycans of all secretor-positive individuals, irrespective of their ABO and Lewis phenotypes. Moreover, as previously suggested, an increased affinity of HBGA to some of the more recent GII.4 variants may have contributed to the epidemiological dominance of these variants [
59]. It is conceivable that these features, in addition to the high prevalence of secretor-positive individuals in the world population, would provide a broad spectrum of susceptible hosts worldwide and affect GII.4 infection.
Regarding the non-GII.4 norovirus genotypes, all but one was found among the infected secretor-positive children, although we detected GII.1 and GII.2 genotypes capable of infecting non-secretors to a similar extent as secretors [
57,
60]. The only non-secretor child was infected with the GII.3 norovirus genotype. In fact, this genotype has been reported to infect both secretors and non-secretors, and although some studies indicate that the secretors are more prone to infection by that genotype, the association is not as strong as that observed for the GII.4 genotype [
21,
61].
We observed a trend towards the occurrence of rotavirus infection on secretor Lewis positive children (91.4%), without reaching statistical significance, probably due to the low number of rotavirus cases. This result is similar to that obtained in an epidemiological study conducted in Burkina Faso and Nicaragua that showed that no secretor/Lewis negative child with diarrhea was infected by P[8] [
22]. Moreover, previous studies suggest that both the Lewis b and secretor antigens are required for P[8] and P[4] VP8* binding [
24,
48,
62]. On the other hand, recent structural studies involving P[8] VP8* binding to HBGA presented conflicting results. While some indicate the additional fucose conferred by the Lewis b antigen would cause steric hindrance to the interaction, other studies demonstrated binding of P[8] VP8* to the Lewis b antigen via a pocket formed by two β-sheets [
63,
64,
65]. Further studies are warranted to clarify this issue.
Overall, the results of the Lewis phenotyping revealed that the Lewis status (positive/negative) is not a mediator of susceptibility to norovirus infection, an observation consistent with previous studies [
55,
58,
66]. Nevertheless, one study from Taiwan observed that the Lewis antigen-positive genotype was a protective factor against severe norovirus gastroenteritis [
67]. In addition, while the three norovirus GI infected only Lewis-positive children, the norovirus GII infected both Lewis-negative and Lewis-positive children, similar to previous findings from Burkina Faso [
55]. In favor of the GI’s preference to infect Lewis-positive individuals, Kubota and colleagues demonstrated a structural basis for the recognition of Lewis antigens by the GI norovirus [
68]. Unfortunately, due to the limited number of GI positive samples, we could not evaluate the Lewis effect for individual genotypes.
The frequency of 17.1% of Lewis-negative individuals observed in the present study is higher than that registered in people of European descent such as in Scandinavia (5.7%), Spain (6%), and Portugal (10%) [
25,
66,
69]. Nevertheless, the frequency of this phenotype in the highly mixed Brazilian population is similar to other countries of the American continent including Colombia (22%) and Nicaragua (25%), and can reach up to 32% in some African populations [
22,
58,
70]. Among the Lewis negative individuals, four main SNP were identified at positions T59G, G508A, T202C, and C314T. These results are in agreement with a study conducted with an Amazonian population, and a recent birth community-cohort in Rio de Janeiro, in which these SNPs were detected with similar frequencies [
29,
71]. In addition, the combination of SNPs found in the present study are also known to occur in Asian, African, and European populations, with the T59G and G508A being more frequent in the first two continents, and the T202C and C314T in the latter [
72,
73,
74].