A Conserved Region Common to Chikungunya (ChikV), Dengue (DenV) and Zika Viruses (ZikV): Potential as a Tool for Simultaneous Diagnosis and Therapeutics of the Three Viruses [Short Communication]

There is an increasing need to develop strategies for simultaneous detection of Chikungunya (ChikV), Dengue (DenV) and Zika Virus (ZikV) owing to their shared transmission ecology. Towards this aim, nine reference sequences of ChikV, DenV (1 - 4) and ZikV were aligned using ClustalW Omega Software available at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) website. Internet search engines like Google (Scholar), PubMed, JSTOR, and ProQuest Central were used for literature search. Also, Conserved Domain Database (CDD) (NCBI) and ZikaVR (IMTECH, C'garh) formed constant references. One conserved region, 21 amino acids (aa) in length, common to the three viruses mapping to the Core protein of ChikV (aa 211 - 231); and the NS3 proteins of DenV (1 - 4) (aa 1608 – 1628) and ZikV (aa 1631/35 - 1651/55) has been identified by the current author in this study. This region is the part of a protease in all the three viruses studied. Thus, this conserved region can form one diagnostic tool/probe for simultaneous detection of ChikV, DenV and ZikV. Additionally, as this region is conserved, it may form one therapeutic target.