Vaccine and Therapeutic Options To Control Chikungunya Virus

Abstract

Beginning in 2004, chikungunya virus (CHIKV) went from an endemic pathogen limited to Africa and Asia that caused periodic outbreaks to a global pathogen. Given that outbreaks caused by CHIKV have continued and expanded, serious consideration must be given to identifying potential options for vaccines and therapeutics. Currently, there are no licensed products in this realm, and control relies completely on the use of personal protective measures and integrated vector control, which are only minimally effective. Therefore, it is prudent to urgently examine further possibilities for control. Vaccines have been shown to be highly effective against vector-borne diseases. However, as CHIKV is known to rapidly spread and generate high attack rates, therapeutics would also be highly valuable. Several candidates are currently being developed; this review describes the multiple options under consideration for future development and assesses their relative advantages and disadvantages.

Keywords: chikungunya; therapeutics; vaccine.

FIG 1

Global distribution of CHIKV. Country colors correspond to the decade of the first reported identification of the local transmission of CHIKV by either serological, molecular, or virological detection methods. (Image created by Nicole Lindsey.)

FIG 2

Genome organization of CHIKV. Shown are both the order and presence of the structural and nonstructural proteins encoded in the CHIKV genome. *, for the 6K peptide, an alternate protein, designated the transframe protein (TF), can be generated due to a frameshift event that may occur during the translation of the 6K gene (19).