Chikungunya virus: recent advances in epidemiology, host pathogen interaction and vaccine strategies

Abstract

The Chikungunya virus is a re-emerging alphavirus that belongs to the family Togaviridae. The symptoms include fever, rashes, nausea and joint pain that may last for months. The laboratory diagnosis of the infection is based on the serologic assays, virus isolation and molecular methods. The pathogenesis of the Chikungunya viral infection is not completely understood. Some of the recent investigations have provided information on replication of the virus in various cells and organs. In addition, some recent reports have indicated that the severity of the disease is correlated with the viral load and cytokines. The Chikungunya virus infection re-emerged as an explosive epidemic during 2004-09 affecting millions of people in the Indian Ocean. Subsequent global attention was given to research on this viral pathogen due to its broad area of geographical distribution during this epidemic. Chikungunya viral infection has become a challenge for the public health system because of the absence of a vaccine as well as antiviral drugs. A number of potential vaccine candidates have been tested on humans and animal models during clinical and preclinical trials. In this review, we mainly discuss the host-pathogen relationship, epidemiology and recent advances in the development of drugs and vaccines for the Chikungunya viral infection.

Three atypical lethal cases associated with acute Zika virus infection in Suriname

“…Laboratory results show evidence for activation of acute and innate immune responses (Table 1), similarly seen in severe, mostly secondary, cases of dengue fever, and in cases of chikungunya [13], [14], [22]. Indeed, especially dengue is known to cause an intravascular ‘cytokine storm’ associated with increased vascular permeability, which may result in potentially lethal dengue shock syndrome [23].…”

Potential entry inhibitors of the envelope protein (E2) of Chikungunya virus: in silico structural modeling, docking and molecular dynamic studies

“…The Chikungunya viral infection share common symptoms with the dengue viral infection characterized by sudden onset of fever, vomiting, nausea, rashes, arthralgia and myalgia [2,13]. Both CHIKV and DENV are spread by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes [3].…”

“…The genome of CHIKV is single stranded positive sense RNA of approximately 11.8 kb in length. The genomic RNA is capped and polyadenylated, and encodes two open reading frames (ORFs) [13]. The 5 0 ORF encodes four non-structural proteins (nsP1, nsP2, nsP3 and nsP4) and 3 0 ORF encodes the structural polyprotein that is cleaved into the capsid, small polypeptide 6K, E3 and the envelope glycoproteins E2 and E1 [35].…”

Evolution and Emergence of Pathogenic Viruses: Past, Present, and Future

“…For instance, the prevention of arthropod-borne infections (e.g., DENV, CHIKV, and ZIKV) using vector control methods has only been partially successful [57] . Preventing mosquitos breeding can be mediated by avoiding the accumulation of rain water in endemic regions.…”