Poliovirus type 1 isolated from a vaccine-associated case of paralytic poliomyelitis in Brazil.

This study reports a type 1 poliovirus strain isolated in Brazil from a case classified as vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis (VAPP). After serotyping of the viral isolate with hyperimmune equine sera, PCR and molecular hybridization techniques characterized the strain as P1/Sabin-derived. The isolate was partially sequenced to identify mutations at nucleotides 480, 525 and 6203, which are important for reversion of the P1/Sabin strain to neurovirulence. In a recent study, a P1/Sabin-derived strain isolated from the central nervous system of a VAPP case did not mutate at these positions, but maintained 480-G and 525-U (and 6203-C), suggesting that these mutations are not essential for the occurrence of disease (Georgescu et al., (1994), Journal of Virology, 68: 8089-8101). Although the Brazilian strain also maintained 480-G and 525-U (and 6203-C) and was isolated from the stool, the possibility that this isolate invaded the central nervous system after replicating in the gut, causing the paralysis, cannot be ruled out. This is the first report of a type 1 VAPP case in Brazil, although some cases caused by type 2 and type 3 strains have been described.