A new study recently showed that infections resulting from CHIKV or Chikungunya virus and RRV or Ross River virus are spread by mosquitoes and cause severe fever, muscle pain, and arthritis.
In connection to this, as specified in a Telangana Today report, some treatments that are successful in treating rheumatoid arthritis or RA may help enhance treatment for individuals who have incapacitating mosquito-borne viral diseases.
According to Ali Zaid, lead author of the study from Menzies Health Institute Queensland at Griffith University in Australia, the disease resulting from these viral infections "bears several similarities" with a form of autoimmune arthritis called Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Zaid explained, in severe RA, patients are expressing high levels of an immune molecule known as Interleukin-17, a target of new anti-arthritis drugs.
Interleukin-17 Levels in CHIKV and RRV Infections
In two new studies published in the PLoS Pathogens and mBIO journals, the study authors discovered that IL-17 was higher, too, during CHIKV and RRV infections.
The research team examined samples from patients infected with CHIKV, collected during an outbreak in northern Brazil in 2019.
They discovered that IL-17 levels were high in patients with acute disease and more so in those with a chronic illness.
According to Helen Mostafavi from Griffith, when they looked at serum specimens from Ross River virus patients, IL-17 levels were also high, which prompted them to ask if this "molecule was driving disease.
Link Between Treatments Successful in RA and Other Diseases
With the use of an experimental mouse model of viral arthritis, the researchers discovered that targeting IL-17 in virus-infected mice enhanced disease and decreased inflammation.
This proposes that some treatments successful in rheumatoid arthritis could potentially benefit those who have alphavirus diseases, explained Mostafavi.
Nevertheless, the authors discovered that a total lack of IL-17 was not essentially ideal-genetically modified mice lacking IL-17 exhibited an increase in viral RNA in the post-acute phase of the disease, despite exhibiting reduced infection.
TRIF Protein Needed
In separate research published in mBIO, the stud investigators examined the role of a protein also known as TRIF, which cells are using to sense the viral RNA and begin a robust antiviral response, alerting neighboring cells.
With the use of genetically modified mice that lack the TRIF protein, the researchers discovered that TRIF was required to help produce neutralizing antibodies against RRV.
The researchers said such findings are giving new understandings into how different arms of the immune response are cooperating to guarantee long-lasting defense against viruses such as CHIKV and RRV and will pave the way into the formulation and development of new immunotherapies for the treatment of these diseases.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes RA as an autoimmune or inflammatory disease which means that the immune system is attacking healthy cells in the body by mistake, leading to painful swelling or inflammation in the affected area of the body.
Rheumatoid arthritis mainly attacks the joints, typically many joints at once. It usually affects joints in the knees, wrists, and hands. In a joint with RA, its lining becomes inflamed, resulting in damage to joint tissue. This disease can also affect other tissues throughout the body and cause various organs, including the lungs, eyes, and heart.
Related information about joint pains caused by mosquito bites is shown on Medeaz's YouTube video below:
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