Exploring the Druggability of Chikungunya Virus Protease nsP2 Using Biomolecular NMR

Presenter

Kevin Alexander

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Jeanne Hardy, Department of Chemistry, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 4, 2:30 PM - 3:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A62, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 4 (A61-A80) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Mosquito-borne diseases infect more than 400 million people per year, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths. There are few vaccines or therapeutics available to combat this issue, and as such there is a need for novel antiviral methods. Our present project focuses on Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), an enveloped positive-strand RNA alphavirus of the Togaviridae family. CHIKV infects more than 3 million people annually, primarily in Africa and India. There have also been reported instances of CHIKV infections in the Caribbean islands and the Americas, and indeed CHIKV is predicted to become endemic in North America in the near future. Symptoms of acute infection are manifested as a flu-like illness that is paired with inflammation and joint pain that can potentially last for years. In addition, infections occurring during late-stage pregnancy are linked with severe encephalopathy in newborns or aborted fetuses. We aim to treat CHIKV by inhibiting Chikungunya virus protease NSP2 (CHIKVP), which is crucial for the virus’s replication processes. Our approach was inspired by the prior success of proteases as drug targets for other viral diseases, such as SARS-CoV-2, HIV and hepatitis C. As of now, no effective inhibitors of CHIKVP have been developed. The long-term goal of this project is to develop inhibitors of CHIKVP as to mitigate disease progression.

Keywords

Drug design, Nuclear magnetic resonance, Viral diseases

Research Area

Chemistry and Materials Science

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