Neuropilin 2 protects human from Chikungunya virus

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is one of the most common mosquito borne diseases in Malaysia. It is transmitted to human via Aedes mosquito. Once the virus enter the human body, the virus will hijack the human system and replicate inside human. This will cause human having fever, headache and most commonly joint pain. In this study, we want to identify human protein that plays a crucial roles in CHIKV pathogenesis. Interaction between human proteins and CHIKV was done through a powerful screening tool called yeast two hybrid. From this screening, we obtained a numerous positive interactomes and Neuropilin 2 has been chosen because of its function. Downstream assays have been carried out to confirm the interaction for example western blot, co-immunoprecipitation and pull-down assay. Then, we want to modify this NRP2 using siRNA knockdown to observe the effect of NRP2 in CHIKV infection. We hope to see the reduction in CHIKV infection when modified NRP2 was done. Thus, this could be useful as protection and prevention against CHIKV infection