About this Research Topic
Arthritogenic alphaviruses belong to a family of positive sense, single-stranded RNA viruses that cause self-limiting acute and chronic debilitating polyarthralgia-polyarthritis, resembling an autoinflammatory disease. These viruses include chikungunya virus, Ross River virus, Barmah Forest virus, Sindbis virus, O'nyong-nyong virus and Mayaro virus. They are transmitted mainly by mosquitoes and have recently re-emerged in Africa, Asia, Central, and South America. For example, chikungunya virus has caused millions of human infections in Asia and the Americas since 2005. Despite the significant risk for global public health, there are no vaccines or antiviral drugs for these important pathogens. Particularly, the chronic nature of arthritogenic alphaviral disease creates a high economic burden, while the molecular mechanisms underlying chronic rheumatic manifestations remain elusive.
In this Research Topic, we welcome our colleagues in the arthritogenic alphavirus research field to submit Original Research or Review articles related to clinical diagnostics, vaccine/antiviral drug development, basic research including, but not limited to, virus-host interaction, antiviral mechanisms, immune pathogenesis, the roles of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, innate immune cells, and B/T cells in host resistance to viral infection and/or arthritis pathogenesis.
Keywords: alphavirus, arthritogenic, viral arthritis, antiviral, vaccine, immunity, pathogenesis
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
