本期文章：《细胞》：Online/在线发表

中国农业大学刘金华等研究人员合作发现，人类分离的禽H3N8流感病毒在雪貂间经空气传播。相关论文于2023年9月4日在线发表在《细胞》杂志上。

研究人员证明了H3N8病毒能够在器官型正常人支气管上皮细胞（NHBE）和肺上皮细胞（Calu-3）中有效感染和复制。与鸡分离株相比，人分离株的H3N8病毒毒性更强，可导致小鼠和雪貂出现严重病变。重要的是，从一名重症肺炎患者身上分离出的H3N8病毒可通过呼吸飞沫在雪貂间传播；它获得了人类受体结合偏好和空气传播所需的氨基酸替代PB2-E627K。即使接种了人类H3N2病毒疫苗，人类群体对新出现的适应哺乳动物的H3N8禽流感病毒（AIV）似乎仍处于免疫初始期，很容易受到流行病或大流行的感染。

据悉，H3N8 AIV在2022年造成中国两例确诊人感染病例，随后在2023年报告了一例死亡病例。H3N8病毒在鸡群中广泛传播，但人们对H3N8病毒的人畜共患病特征知之甚少。

附：英文原文

Title: Airborne transmission of human-isolated avian H3N8 influenza virus between ferrets

Author: Honglei Sun, Han Li, Qi Tong, Qiqi Han, Jiyu Liu, Haili Yu, Hao Song, Jianxun Qi, Jiaqi Li, Jizhe Yang, Riguo Lan, Guojing Deng, Haoyu Chang, Yajin Qu, Juan Pu, Yipeng Sun, Yu Lan, Dayan Wang, Yi Shi, William J. Liu, Kin-Chow Chang, George F. Gao, Jinhua Liu

Issue&Volume: 2023-09-04

Abstract: H3N8 avian influenza viruses (AIVs) in China caused two confirmed human infectionsin 2022, followed by a fatal case reported in 2023. H3N8 viruses are widespread inchicken flocks; however, the zoonotic features of H3N8 viruses are poorly understood.Here, we demonstrate that H3N8 viruses were able to infect and replicate efficientlyin organotypic normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells and lung epithelial(Calu-3) cells. Human isolates of H3N8 virus were more virulent and caused severepathology in mice and ferrets, relative to chicken isolates. Importantly, H3N8 virusisolated from a patient with severe pneumonia was transmissible between ferrets throughrespiratory droplets; it had acquired human-receptor-binding preference and aminoacid substitution PB2-E627K necessary for airborne transmission. Human populations,even when vaccinated against human H3N2 virus, appear immunologically naive to emergingmammalian-adapted H3N8 AIVs and could be vulnerable to infection at epidemic or pandemicproportion.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.08.011