Papers of the Week

(CHIKV) is a mosquito-borne pathogen, within the genus of the family, that causes ~1.1 million human infections annually. CHIKV uses and mosquitoes as insect vectors. Human infections can develop arthralgia and myalgia, which results in debilitating pain for weeks, months, and even years after acute infection. No therapeutic treatments or vaccines currently exist for many alphaviruses, including CHIKV. Targeting the phagocytosis of CHIKV by macrophages after mosquito transmission plays an important role in early productive viral infection in humans, and could reduce viral replication and/or symptoms.