RECENT ADVANCES TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATIONS OF NOVEL THERAPEUTICS AGAINST CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS INFECTIONS

Chikungunya infection, caused by the flavivirus Chikungunya, spreads from one person to another by two species of Aedes mosquitoes, i.e., Aedes albopictus and A. aegypti. There is a rapid global emergence and resurgence of Chikungunya infections in India and the Indian Ocean Islands, making it a public health emergency around the globe. There are numerous strategies being adopted by this arbovirus to evade host immune defences, and as such specific preventive and therapeutic interventions to this fatal and incapacitating disease are still unavailable at large. Hence, under this grave global epidemiological scenario, the development of novel therapeutics against Chikungunya infections in humans is an absolute mandate now. Fortunately, in recent years, experimentations toward new approaches for the prevention and treatment of Chikungunya infections are already underway, with significant success being slowly achieved at the preliminary level of laboratory-based pilot-studies. In this article, we review some of these important advancements achieved in the development of novel chemical therapeutics, immunotherapies, vaccines, and complementary & alternative medicines against Chikungunya virus infections that have shown much promise and can hopefully open untraversed avenues before pharmacists and other health care professionals in the treatment of Chikungunya.