Abstract

PREMATURE EVENTS IN CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS INFECTION AND THEIR INHIBITING STRATEGIES—FROM VIRUS CELL BINDING TO MEMBRANE FUSION

Mohammad Taleb Hossain*, Md. Asadujjaman, Sukalyan Kumar Kundu, Md. Rafiqul Islam Rupam, Sushanta Halder and Md. Harun Ar Rashid

ABSTRACT

Chikungunya virus is a rapidly emerging mosquito-borne alphavirus causing millions of infections in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. This infection often leads to an acute self-limited febrile illness with debilitating myalgia and arthralgia. A potential long-term complex infection results severe joint pain, which can last for months to several years. There is no clear-cut mechanistic explanations of the occurrences and spreading of this virus and also still there is no vaccines or specific therapeutics to prevent or treat this infection. Therefore this review describe the latest mechanistic aspects of critical steps involved in chikungunya virus cell entry including cell tropism, virus-receptor binding, internalization and membrane fusion, spreading mechanism and description of the molecules, drugs, other medicinal substances and means that have been used to interfere with the infection and related complications. So the aim of the study is to provide a newer feature on cell entry and to provide a viewpoint on potential new avenues in chikungunya virus research.

Keywords: Chikungunya virus, alphavirus, cell tropism, receptor, endocytosis, clathrin, fusion, neutralizing antibodies, entry inhibitors.