Executive Summary : | Dengue virus (DENV) is a global public health concern, with South Asia having the highest burden of cases at 104 million in 2017. The Indian subcontinent contributes the most to the global burden of dengue disease, with large and recurrent outbreaks, extension of endemic transmission, and spreading from urban to rural areas. Dengue fever is caused by a Flaviviridae family virus, with four distinct serotypes: DENV-1 to DENV-4. The primary vectors are Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. DENV infection causes a wide range of illnesses, including dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS). Clinical symptoms include joint pain, high fever, nausea, headache, vomiting, and skin rashes. Some individuals may develop severe dengue, DHF, with complications resulting in bleeding, organ destruction, exceptionally low platelet count, and/or plasma leakage. DSS is characterized by low blood pressure, which may result in circulatory collapse. Currently, there is no commercially available potent antiviral drug and efforts to produce a vaccine are still in progress. There is a need to determine biomarkers for diagnostic/therapeutic use by understanding the pathogenesis of dengue virus, host immune response, and identifying new host cellular proteins. It is critical to identify and comprehend the molecular mechanism of dengue virus associated proteins that may result in DSS/DHF. The present study aims to perform proteomic profiling of serum samples from dengue patients to identify molecules linked with the host response to virus infection. Detecting several serum proteins up- or down-regulated during viral infection can serve as a biomarker to measure the severity of the disease and serve as a new molecular target for antiviral therapies, focusing on dengue infection. |