Researchers identify ‘dark proteins’ of chikungunya virus

At a time when mosquito-borne diseases are creating health havoc in the country, a study done by the researchers claimed to have discovered a technique that could help design improved drugs to treat chikungunya. The study identified the 'dark' regions in the proteins of Chikungunya virus. According to the researchers, the findings may help doctors make progress in the treatment of the vector-borne viral infection.

Basically, their research is aimed at understanding the structure and action of the Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) through computational studies. The researchers defined the dark proteome as proteins with structures that can not be determined by conventional methods, such as X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy. The dark proteome, unlike conventional proteins, are unable to fold spontaneously into single, well-defined 3D structures, making it difficult for scientists to understand their properties, said the study. 


“The pathogenic mechanism of mosquito-borne Chikungunya is not fully understood as yet because of the scarcity of information about the structure and non-structure of the viral proteins,”  he said . “Our research seeks to fill this gap in knowledge,” he said.

The team used multiple computational tools to identify the molecular recognition features of the virus (MoRF)in the proteins of the chikungunya virus. They found that all Chikungunya virus proteins have at least one MoRF crucial for signalling events during survival and pathogenesis of the virus.

More than 1.5 million deaths worldwide are caused by viral infections every year, said the researchers quoting WHO reports. However, the researchers are now hopeful that there would be a better path towards the design of specific drug molecules that can act against this virus once all the molecular mechanisms of CHIKV proteins are deciphered and protein-protein interactions are understood.
 

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