Identification of the virus-host protein interaction landscape of the Chikungunya virus

Abstract

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a prototypic alphavirus, utilizes its replication complex to synthesize genomic strand (49S), minus strand and sub genomic strand (26S) RNAs. CHIKV infects both human and mosquito cells and replicates within them. However, the infection of humans by CHIKV causes Chikungunya fever and most prominently, painful polyarthralgia that are mostly self-resolving within weeks to months after the infection but can also result in chronic joint pains in a significant number of CHIKV infected individuals. No approved treatment or vaccine exists for its management but outbreaks continue to surface in recent times. The molecular mechanisms involved in the virus replication strategy is still obscure. Although the role of the viral proteins in the replication process have been described, the involvement of host cell factors is unclear. The goal of this study is to elucidate host cell factors that support CHIKV replication in human and mosquito cells through interaction with the viral non-structural proteins. We have optimized affinity purification schemes for the identification of these host factors by mass spectrometry (AP-MS).