Systems analysis of West Nile virus infection.
Emerging and re-emerging mosquito-borne viruses continue to pose a significant threat to human health throughout the world. Over the past decade, West Nile virus (WNV), Dengue virus (DENV), and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV), have caused annual epidemics of virus-induced encephalitis, hemorrhagic fever\shock syndromes, and arthritis, respectively. Currently, no specific antiviral therapies or vaccines exist for use in humans to combat or prevent these viral infections. Thus, there is a pressing need to define the virus-host interactions that govern immunity and infection outcome. Recent technological breakthroughs in 'omics' resources and high-throughput based assays are beginning to accelerate antiviral drug discovery and improve on current strategies for vaccine design. In this review, we highlight studies with WNV and discuss how traditional and systems biological approaches are being used to rapidly identify novel host targets for therapeutic intervention and develop a deeper conceptual understanding of the host response to virus infection.
Department of Pediatrics and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA; Emory Vaccine Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA. Electronic address: msuthar@emory.edu.
Mehul S
MS
Suthar
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA; Emory Vaccine Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA.
Bali
B
Pulendran
D000818:Animals; D009033:Culicidae / Q000821:virology; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D049490:Systems Biology / Q000379:methods; D014901:West Nile Fever / Q000209:etiology* / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology; D014902:West Nile virus / Q000502:physiology*