Combating Chikungunya
20 May 2010
"The main objective of the project is to look at the host and virus interaction of chikungunya. We plan to find out what are the host factors that help the virus in replication."
Assistant Professor Justin Jang-Hann Chu of the Department of Microbiology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.
INFECTED: A microscope picture of chikungunya virus particles (small rounded particles) on the surface of infected cells
ASTAR GRANT RECIPIENT: Assistant Prof Justin Jang-Hann Chu
NUS researchers are paving the way for the potential development of an anti-viral therapy for chikungunya fever through their study of the pathogenesis, or the origins and effects of the chikungunya virus. To date, there is no treatment for chikungunya which had caused outbreaks in Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia and islands in the Indian Ocean as well as in Singapore in 2008.
The research team led by Assistant Professor Justin Jang-Hann Chu of the Department of Microbiology, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, has recently been awarded funding from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's (A*STAR) Biomedical Research Council (BMRC). Prof Mary Ng Mah Lee, also from the Department of Microbiology, is co-Principal Investigator of the study.
"The main objective of the project is to look at the host and virus interaction of chikungunya. We plan to find out what are the host factors that help the virus in replication," said Dr Chu.
Chikungunya-stricken patients typically suffer from a sudden onset of fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, joint pain with or without swelling, and low back pain. At times, patients might develop a rash affecting the trunk and limbs.
"The first part of the study will involve understanding how the virus enters cells or the interaction between the virus and cellular receptors. Once we know how this functions, we can stop the virus from replicating. By understanding this, we can thereafter develop drugs and anti-viral therapies," explained Dr Chu.
With the A*STAR grant, Dr Chu will be able to increase manpower for the project and also build upon the current technology which his laboratory has put together so far. This includes the genome-wide small interference RNA screening technology - a whole genome collection of siRNA that can knock down individual protein within cells and show whether the protein is essential in virus replication. Dr Chu has also put in place drug libraries which can be used to screen anti-viral drugs.
Dr Chu's study on chikungunya adds on to his extended knowledge of mosquito-borne viruses. Over the past ten years, he has been working on the dengue and West Nile viruses.
A*STAR's BMRC awarded grants to 25 research projects this year, 16 of which were NUS projects. In addition, two out of four grants issued by the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) of A*STAR this year also went to NUS. Both grant calls were aimed at supporting the translation of lab discoveries to potential clinical therapies for diseases prevalent in Singapore and the region. Of the 29 research projects awarded in total, 12 were on infectious diseases and immunology and these projects accounted for over a third of the $23 million in grants issued.