Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a re-emergent arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) that causes a disease characterized primarily by fever, rash and severe persistent polyarthralgia. In the last decade, CHIKV has become a serious public health problem causing several outbreaks around the world. Despite the fact that CHIKV has been around since 1952, our knowledge about immunopathology, innate and adaptive immune response involved in this infectious disease is incomplete. In this review, we provide an updated summary of the current knowledge about immune response to CHIKV and about soluble immunological markers associated with the morbidity, prognosis and chronicity of this arbovirus disease. In addition, we discuss the progress in the research of new vaccines for preventing CHIKV infection and the use of monoclonal antibodies as a promising therapeutic strategy.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) causes an infectious disease characterized by inflammation and pain of the musculoskeletal tissues accompanied by swelling in the joints and cartilage damage. Currently, there are no licensed vaccines or chemotherapeutic agents to prevent or treat CHIKV infections. In this context, our research aimed to explore the potential in vitro anti-CHIKV activity of acrylamide derivatives. In silico methods were applied to 132 Michael’s acceptors toward the six most important biological targets from CHIKV. Subsequently, the ten most promising acrylamides were selected and synthesized. From the cytotoxicity MTT assay, we verified that LQM330, 334, and 336 demonstrate high cell viability at 40 µM. Moreover, these derivatives exhibited anti-CHIKV activities, highlighting the compound LQM334 which exhibited an inhibition value of 81%. Thus, docking simulations were performed to suggest a potential CHIKV-target for LQM334. It was observed that the LQM334 has a high affinity towards the E3-E2-E1 glycoproteins complex. Moreover, LQM334 reduced the percentage of CHIKV-positive cells from 74.07 to 0.88%, 48h post-treatment on intracellular flow cytometry staining. In conclusion, all virtual simulations corroborated with experimental results, and LQM334 could be used as a promising anti-CHIKV scaffold for designing new drugs in the future.

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) causes a self-limiting disease characterized by the onset of fever, skin rash and persistent arthralgia. In the last decade, it has emerged as a serious public health problem causing several outbreaks around the world. Here, we report the CHIKV genotype characterization during the 2016 CHIKV outbreak in Alagoas State, Brazil. Partial E1 sequence from CHIKV-positive samples coming from different cities of Alagoas were submitted to DNA sequencing followed by phylogenetic analysis thus characterizing the virus genotype. The circulating CHIKV virus in Alagoas during 2016 outbreak belongs to the East-Central South African genotype. In this way, virus genotyping to monitoring the spread of CHIKV is needed to continued surveillance supporting the development of prevention strategies, mainly in endemic areas of mosquitoes and arboviruses co-circulation.

Background The immune response against the Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) during the very early acute phase is not fully elucidated. Therefore we explored the cytokine and chemokine profile triggered by CHIKV in infected patients. Methods Cytokines, chemokines and C5a anaphylatoxin were analysed in serum from CHIKV-infected patients during the viraemic phase (mean 2.97±1.27 d after illness onset) compared with a healthy group. Results CHIKV-infected patients had a significant increase of interferon-α (IFN-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (CXCL8/IL-8), interleukin-10 (IL-10), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), monokine induced by interferon-γ (CXCL9/MIG), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (CCL2/MCP-1), interferon-γ-induced protein-10 (CXCL10/IP-10) and complement C5a anaphylatoxin. Conclusions The very early acute immune response triggered against CHIKV leads to an increase in pro-inflammatory immune mediators such as IFN-γ and its induced chemokines, and a high level of C5a anaphylatoxin as a result of complement activation.

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