Research Projects

The challenge faced by the emergence and re-emergence of viral strains and growing resistance to available antiviral drugs necessitate research and development activities to mitigate virus infections. Among the significant vector-borne viral diseases, the Chandipura virus (CHPV) poses serious health risks to children in India. The CHPV is a highly contagious virus, with a case fatality reaching up to 55 to 77%. The CHPV is the primary cause of acute encephalitis endemic to many parts of India. There is no efficacious vaccine or antivirals available against CHPV through recombinant and killed virus-based vaccine approaches in clinical trials. Most of the time, doctors give symptoms-based treatment to the patients. Although novel studies related to virus epidemiology, genome replication, and transcription and virus entry mechanisms are still available, our understanding of viral pathogenesis and virus-host interaction is limited. Particularly a comprehensive understanding of host factors associated with CHPV infection is lacking. Discovering these factors are undoubtedly accelerating the R&D activities to mitigate viral infections. Viruses are obligate parasites, utilize many host genes and their proliferation, also known as host factors. These factors have now surfaced as a new target for antiviral strategy. If affordable to the host cells, targeting the host factors may prove beneficial in controlling viral infection. The interacting interfaces between the host protein and the viral proteins are often aimed for antiviral interventions. This aspect of antiviral drug development is in its inception phase. However, with the advancement in molecular techniques identifying various viral host factors, this field is believed to have immense potential as an antiviral drug targeting strategy. In this context, this proposal aims to discover all associated human host factors for CHPV infection, which could be further extrapolated for antiviral drug discovery or find a way to mitigate viral infections. We will employ CRISPR/Cas9-based gene knockout approach and conduct a genome-wide screens in human cells to identify host factors required for CHPV infection. We further aim investigate mechanism by which the selective host factors (top three) and its contributing role in CHPV biology.