“Most infectious diseases research focuses on treating acute symptoms and neglects to address the long-term impact of these diseases. A SPARK award would allow me to address this knowledge gap and provide an answer for countless individuals without proper diagnosis.”
Does chronic chikungunya infection resemble an autoimmune disease?
Funded: February 2024
Funded by: The generosity of the Rosemary Kraemer Raitt Foundation Trust
We need to understand why so many people infected with Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) develop chronic, arthritis-like disease. My SPARK project investigates if this mysterious arthritis-like disease resembles an autoimmune disease. I am examining whether T helper cells, a type of immune cell, may mistakenly begin to attack a person’s own cells instead of taking aim at targets on CHIKV.
Using bioinformatics, I identified 15 self-antigens (sites on healthy cells) with high sequence similarity to CHIKV antigens (sites on the virus). I then stimulated T helper cells from chronic CHIKV patients with these self-antigens.
I found no immune response, suggesting no cross-reactivity; however, this finding doesn’t rule out the possibility that T helper cells are mistaking healthy cells for viral targets. As a next step, I will further investigate by comparing the entire CHIKV proteome with the human proteome to find better sequence matches. I will also test for T helper cell cross-reactivity with other viruses, such as cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus. Understanding the role of T helper cells in chronic CHIKV disease could lead to better vaccines and treatments for people affected with virus-induced autoimmune diseases around the world.