Deciphering insect-borne viruses

There is no treatment or vaccine for the West Nile, dengue, or Zika viruses. These infections caused by flaviviruses—mosquito-borne viruses—are a major public health concern worldwide. Understanding their infection strategy would give scientists the information they need to fight infectious diseases. Laurent Chatel-Chaix of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) recently received $700,000 in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to decipher this mystery. “There are probably flaviviruses that we don’t even know of. They’re spreading due to changes in insect populations caused in part by climate change. There is an urgent need to identify new antiviral targets and treatments. This will require a better understanding at the molecular level,” says Professor Laurent Chatel-Chaix, who has been studying flaviviruses for almost 10 years. In Canada, West Nile virus is endemic and causes severe encephalitis and eventually death. In 2018, the Québec Ministry of Health reported 201 West...