Key cellular factors for chikungunya virus replication identified

Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, Inserm and the Max Planck Institute have used high-throughput screening to identify the cellular factors involved in the replication of chikungunya virus in human cells. These findings have revealed potential therapeutic targets that could help tackle this virus.

Like all other viruses, chikungunya penetrates host cells and makes use of their cellular machinery to replicate. But little is known about the specific mechanisms used by this arbovirus (1) to enter and replicate inside cells. The teams led by Marc Lecuit* Head of the Biology of Infection Unit (Institut Pasteur/Inserm), and by Thomas Meyer from the Max Planck Institute in Berlin therefore set themselves the task of identifying the cellular genes involved in the replication of the virus by inhibiting them systematically, one by one, to examine the effect of their inhibition on viral replication.

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