Short report
Inactivation of Chikungunya virus by 1,5 iodonapthyl azide
1 Department of Pathology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA
2 Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India
Virology Journal 2012, 9:301 doi:10.1186/1743-422X-9-301
Published: 4 December 2012Abstract
Background
Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an arthropod borne alphavirus of the family Togaviridae. CHIKV is a reemerging virus for which there is no safe prophylactic vaccine. A live attenuated strain of CHIKV, CHIK181/25, was previously demonstrated to be highly immunogenic in humans, however, it showed residual virulence causing transient arthralgia.
Findings
In this study, we demonstrate the complete inactivation of CHIKV181/25 by 1,5 iodonapthyl azide (INA). No cytopathic effect and virus replication was observed in cells infected with the INA-inactivated CHIKV. However, a reduction in the INA-inactivated CHIK virus-antibody binding capacity was observed by western blot analysis.
Conclusion
INA completely inactivated CHIKV and can further be explored for developing an inactivated-CHIKV vaccine.
