Pinpointing Persistent Pain

Nobody likes a guest who overstays their welcome. Particularly one that wasn’t invited in the first place. Chikungunya is a virus spread spread by mosquitoes that causes fever and severe muscle and joint pain that can persist for months. The cause of this lingering is unclear as researchers have struggled to track the virus during this chronic phase of the illness. To catch it in action, a new study developed a ‘reporter virus’ that permanently marked cells infected by chikungunya (red in the mouse foot pictured 28 days after infection). This molecular tell-tale revealed viral material 112 days after initial infection, and was then used to test what effect a potential treatment has on the number of infected cells and their persistence. The new approach presents a useful tool to pick out cells that harbour traces of infection and cause long term problems, which will ultimately help restrict their impact.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Alissa R. Young and Marissa C. Locke, and colleagues
• Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Pathogens, August 2019