Malaysia experienced its first outbreak of chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection in late 1998 in Klang District in Selangor; six years later the virus re-emerged in the state of Perak. All the CHIKV isolates in 1988 and 2006 shared high sequence similarities and belonged to the Asian genotype. In 2007 and 2008 CHIKV infection again reemerged but the genotype was the Central/East African genotype. This strain was found to be similar to the strains causing outbreaks in the India Ocean. In 2009, the strains circulating in Malaysia, including the state of Kelantan, based on the partial E1 gene, also belong to the Central/East African genotype.
Chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne alphavirus, is endemic in Africa and Southeast Asia but is rarely reported in Taiwan. We report the case of a Taiwanese woman who developed Chikungunya fever, which was first diagnosed by a clinician rather than by fever screening at an airport. The woman presented with fever, maculopapular rash, and arthralgia, the triad for the disease, on the day she returned home after a trip to Malaysia. These symptoms are very similar to those of dengue fever, which is endemic in Southern Taiwan. Chikungunya infection was confirmed by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and seroconversion on paired serum specimens. For approximately 40 years until 2006, no cases of Chikungunya fever had been found in Taiwan. Clinicians in Taiwan should consider Chikungunya fever as a possible diagnosis for a febrile patient with arthralgia, rash, and a history of travel to an endemic area, such as Africa or Southeast Asia.
In 2006, an outbreak of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) of the Asian genotype affected over 200 people in Bagan Panchor village in Malaysia. One year later, a post-outbreak survey was performed to determine attack rate, asymptomatic rate, and post-infection sequelae. Findings were compared with recent CHIKV outbreaks of the Central/East African genotype. A total of 180 residents were interviewed for acute symptoms and post-infection physical quality of life and depressive symptoms. Sera from 72 residents were tested for CHIKV neutralizing antibodies. The estimated attack rate was 55.6%, and 17.5% of infected residents were asymptomatic. Arthralgia was reported up to 3 months after infection, but there were no reports of long-term functional dependence or depression. Symptomatic and seropositive residents were significantly more likely to live in the area with the most dense housing and commercial activities. CHIKV had a high attack rate and considerable clinical impact during the Bagan Panchor outbreak.
In this study, artificial membrane feeding technique was used to orally feed Aedes aegypti with dengue and chikungunya viruses. Virus detection was carried out by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. The study did not detect dual infection of Ae. aegypti with dengue and chikungunya virus from the same pool or from individual mosquitoes. Oral receptivity of Ae. aegypti to chikungunya virus was higher than that of dengue virus.
An outbreak of Chikugunya (CHIK) fever occurred among the fishing community in Bagan Pancor, Perak. The outbreak was laboratory confirmed within 48 hours after the receipt of the specimens. Fifty-three patients' serum samples were submitted for laboratory investigation and 47 (88.7%) were confirmed to be positive for CHIK infection by RT-PCR, and/or virus isolation, and/or in-house immunoflourescent test. RT-PCR and virus isolation were the tests of choice for patients with illness of four days or less and detection of CHIK specific IgM for those with more than four days of fever. The nucleic acid sequence based on the 354- and 294-bp of the nsP1 and E1 genes of the CHIK virus detected from pools of adults Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were identical to those CHIKV virus isolated from humans in the same locality. Phylogenetic analysis of the CHIK virus based on the 257 nts partial E1 gene indicates that Bagan Panchor's strain was closely related to the first CHIK virus isolated during the outbreak in Klang in 1998.
Real-time PCR assay has many advantages over conventional PCR methods, including rapidity, quantitative measurement, low risk of contamination, high sensitivity, high specificity, and ease of standardization (Mackay et al., Nucleic Acids Res 30:1292-1305, 2002). The real-time PCR system relies upon the measurement of a fluorescent reporter during PCR, in which the amount of emitted fluorescence is directly proportional to the amount of the PCR product in a reaction (Gibsons et al., Genome Res 6:995-1001, 1996). Here, we describe the use of SYBR Green I-based and TaqMan(®) real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the detection and quantification of Chikungunya virus (CHIKV).
Immunohistochemistry is a histological technique that allows detection of one or more proteins of interest within a cell using specific antibody binding, followed by microscopic visualization of a chromogenic substrate catalyzed by peroxidase and/or alkaline phosphatase. Here, we describe a method to localize Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) antigens in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded infected mouse brain.
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne arbovirus which poses a major threat to global public health. Definitive CHIKV diagnosis is crucial, especially in distinguishing the disease from dengue virus, which co-circulates in endemic areas and shares the same mosquito vectors. Laboratory diagnosis is mainly based on serological or molecular approaches. The E2 glycoprotein is a good candidate for serological diagnosis since it is the immunodominant antigen during the course of infection, and reacts with seropositive CHIKV sera. In this chapter, we describe the generation of stable clone Sf9 (Spodoptera frugiperda) cells expressing secreted, soluble, and native recombinant CHIKV E2 glycoprotein. We use direct plasmid expression in insect cells, rather than the traditional technique of generating recombinant baculovirus. This recombinant protein is useful for serological diagnosis of CHIKV infection.
A study of chikungunya virus was carried out to establish Reverse Transcriptase- Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) as a rapid detection technique of the virus. The susceptibility of lab-colonized Aedes aegypti to chikungunya virus was also determined. Artificial membrane feeding technique was used to orally feed the mosquitoes with a human isolate of chikungunya virus. A total of 100 fully engorged female Ae. aegypti were obtained and maintained for 7 days. Seventy of them survived and then pooled at 10 individuals per pool. Total RNA was extracted from the samples and RT-PCR amplifications were carried out. Five out of 7 pools showed positive PCR band at 350-bp, indicating Ae. aegypti is a potential vector of chikungunya virus. The minimum infection rate (MIR) was 71% within these laboratory colonies. RT-PCR is a sensitive technique that is useful in detecting infected mosquitoes in epidemic areas. This technique can de used as a rapid detection method and provide an early virologic surveillance systems of chikungunya virus infected mosquitoes.
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) has caused large-scale epidemics of fever, rash and arthritis since 2004. This unprecedented re-emergence has been associated with mutations in genes encoding structural envelope proteins, providing increased fitness in the secondary vector Aedes albopictus. In the 2008-2013 CHIKV outbreaks across Southeast Asia, an R82S mutation in non-structural protein 4 (nsP4) emerged early in Malaysia or Singapore and quickly became predominant. To determine whether this nsP4-R82S mutation provides a selective advantage in host cells, which may have contributed to the epidemic, the fitness of infectious clone-derived CHIKV with wild-type nsP4-82R and mutant nsP4-82S were compared in Ae. albopictus and human cell lines. Viral infectivity, dissemination and transmission in Ae. albopictus were not affected by the mutation when the two variants were tested separately. In competition, the nsP4-82R variant showed an advantage over nsP4-82S in dissemination to the salivary glands, but only in late infection (10 days). In human rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) and embryonic kidney (HEK-293T) cell lines coinfected at a 1 : 1 ratio, wild-type nsP4-82R virus was rapidly outcompeted by nsP4-82S virus as early as one passage (3 days). In conclusion, the nsP4-R82S mutation provides a greater selective advantage in human cells than in Ae. albopictus, which may explain its apparent natural selection during CHIKV spread in Southeast Asia. This is an unusual example of a naturally occurring mutation in a non-structural protein, which may have facilitated epidemic transmission of CHIKV.
Chikungunya virus infection recently reemerged in Malaysia after 7 years of nondetection. Genomic sequences of recovered isolates were highly similar to those of Malaysian isolates from the 1998 outbreak. The reemergence of the infection is not part of the epidemics in other Indian Ocean countries but raises the possibility that chikungunya virus is endemic in Malaysia.
In 2010, chikungunya virus of the East Central South African genotype was isolated from 4 children in Myanmyar who had dengue-like symptoms. Phylogenetic analysis of the E1 gene revealed that the isolates were closely related to isolates from China, Thailand, and Malaysia that harbor the A226V mutation in this gene.
Chikungunya infection has become a public health threat in Malaysia since the 2008 nationwide outbreaks. Aedes albopictus Skuse has been identified as the chikungunya vector in Johor State during the outbreaks. In 2009, several outbreaks had been reported in the State of Kelantan. Entomological studies were conducted in Kelantan in four districts, namely Jeli, Tumpat, Pasir Mas and Tanah Merah to identify the vector responsible for the virus transmission.
Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) is useful for diagnosis and studying virus replication. We developed positive- and negative-strand qRT-PCR assays to detect nsP3 of chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a positive-strand RNA alphavirus that causes epidemic fever, rash, and arthritis. The positive- and negative-strand qRT-PCR assays had limits of quantification of 1 and 3 log10 RNA copies/reaction, respectively. Compared to a published E1 diagnostic assay using 30 laboratory-confirmed clinical samples, the positive-strand nsP3 qRT-PCR assay had higher R(2) and efficiency and detected more positive samples. Peak viral load of 12.9 log(10) RNA copies/mL was reached on day 2 of illness, and RNA was detectable up to day 9, even in the presence of anti-CHIKV IgM. There was no correlation between viral load and persistent arthralgia. The positive-strand nsP3 assay is suitable for diagnosis, while the negative-strand nsP3 assay, which uses tagged primers to increase specificity, is useful for study of active viral replication kinetics.
In the past decade, enterovirus 71 (EV71) and chikungunya (CHIK) virus have re-emerged periodically causing serious public health problems in Malaysia, since their first emergence in 1997 and 1998 respectively. This study demonstrates that CHIK virus causes similar patterns of cytopathic effect in cultured Vero cells as some enteroviruses. They also show positive cross-reaction on direct immunofluorescence staining using monoclonal antibodies meant for typing enteroviruses. Without adequate clinical and epidemiological information for correlation, CHIK virus isolated from patients with acute febrile rash can be wrongly reported as untypeable enterovirus due to its cross-reactivity with commercial pan-enterovirus monoclonal antibodies. This is due to the diagnostic laboratory being unaware of such cross-reactions as it has not been reported previously. Final identification of the virus could be determined with specific antibodies or molecular typing using specific oligonucleotide primers for the CHIK virus.
Chikungunya is an acute febrile illness caused by an alphavirus which is transmitted by infective Aedes mosquitoes. Two previous outbreaks of chikungunya in Malaysia were due to chikungunya virus of Asian genotype. The present outbreak involved two adjoining areas in the suburb of Ipoh city within the Kinta district of Perak, a state in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia. Thirty seven residents in the main outbreak area and two patients in the secondary area were laboratory confirmed to be infected with the virus. The index case was a 44-year Indian man who visited Paramakudi, Tamil Naidu, India on 21st November 2006 and returned home on 30th of November 2006, and subsequently developed high fever and joint pain on the 3rd of December 2006. A number of chikungunya virus isolates were isolated from both patients and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes in the affected areas. Molecular study showed that the chikungunya virus causing the Kinta outbreak was of the Central/East African genotype which occurred for the first time in Malaysia.
This study focuses on the antiviral activity of selected flavonoids against the Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), a mosquito-transmitted virus that can cause incapacitating arthritis in infected individuals. Based on the results of screening on Vero cells, the tested compounds were evaluated further with various assays, including cytotoxicity assay, virus yield assay by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), virus RNA replication assay with a CHIKV replicon cell line, Western blotting, and quantitative immunofluorescence assay. Baicalein, fisetin, and quercetagetin displayed potent inhibition of CHIKV infection, with 50% inhibitory concentrations [IC50] of 1.891 μg/ml (6.997 μM), 8.444 μg/ml (29.5 μM), and 13.85 μg/ml (43.52 μM), respectively, and with minimal cytotoxicity. The time-of-addition studies and various antiviral assays demonstrated that baicalein and quercetagetin mainly inhibited CHIKV binding to the Vero cells and displayed potent activity against extracellular CHIKV particles. The qRT-PCR, immunofluorescence assay, and Western blot analyses indicated that each of these flavonoids affects CHIKV RNA production and viral protein expression. These data provide the first evidence of the intracellular anti-CHIKV activity of baicalein, fisetin, and quercetagetin.
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne alphavirus that causes chikungunya infection in humans. Despite the widespread distribution of CHIKV, no antiviral medication or vaccine is available against this virus. Therefore, it is crucial to find an effective compound to combat CHIKV. We aimed to predict the possible interactions between non-structural protein 3 (nsP) of CHIKV as one of the most important viral elements in CHIKV intracellular replication and 3 potential flavonoids using a computational approach. The 3-dimensional structure of nsP3 was retrieved from the Protein Data Bank, prepared and, using AutoDock Vina, docked with baicalin, naringenin and quercetagetin as ligands. The first-rated ligand with the strongest binding affinity towards the targeted protein was determined based on the minimum binding energy. Further analysis was conducted to identify both the active site of the protein that reacts with the tested ligands and all of the existing intermolecular bonds. Compared to the other ligands, baicalin was identified as the most potential inhibitor of viral activity by showing the best binding affinity (-9.8 kcal/mol). Baicalin can be considered a good candidate for further evaluation as a potentially efficient antiviral against CHIKV.
The xCELLigence real-time cell analysis (RTCA) system is an established electronic cell sensor array. This system uses microelectronic biosensor technology that is verified for real-time, label-free, dynamic and non-offensive monitoring of cellular features, including detection of viral cytopathic effect (CPE). Screening viral replication inhibitors based on presence of CPE has been applied for different viruses, including chikungunya virus (CHIKV). However, most CPE-based methods, including MTT and MTS assays, do not provide information on the initiation of CPE nor the changes in reaction rate of the virus propagation over time. Therefore, in this study we developed an RTCA method as an accurate and time-based screen for antiviral compounds against CHIKV.
The mosquito-borne chikungunya virus (CHIKV) causes chikungunya fever, with clinical presentations such as severe back and small joint pain, and debilitating arthritis associated with crippling pains that persist for weeks and even years. Although there are several studies to evaluate the efficacy of drugs against CHIKV, the treatment for chikungunya fever is mainly symptom-based and no effective licensed vaccine or antiviral are available. Here, we investigated the antiviral activity of three types of flavonoids against CHIKV in vitro replication. Three compounds: silymarin, quercetin and kaempferol were evaluated for their in vitro antiviral activities against CHIKV using a CHIKV replicon cell line and clinical isolate of CHIKV of Central/East African genotype. A cytopathic effect inhibition assay was used to determine their activities on CHIKV viral replication and quantitative reverse transcription PCR was used to calculate virus yield. Antiviral activity of effective compound was further investigated by evaluation of CHIKV protein expression using western blotting for CHIKV nsP1, nsP3, and E2E1 proteins. Briefly, silymarin exhibited significant antiviral activity against CHIKV, reducing both CHIKV replication efficiency and down-regulating production of viral proteins involved in replication. This study may have important consequence for broaden the chance of getting the effective antiviral for CHIKV infection.