Screening Compounds to Identify an Inhibitor of the Dengue NS5 Protein
Session Number
Project ID: BIO 26
Advisor(s)
Dr. Angela Ahrendt; Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Discipline
Biology
Start Date
22-4-2020 9:45 AM
End Date
22-4-2020 10:00 AM
Abstract
Dengue fever is a disease caused by any of the four related dengue viruses. It is a mosquito-borne disease that mainly occurs in tropical and subtropical regions. Approximately 400 million cases of dengue infections occur worldwide while 96 million cases result in dengue fever. Symptoms occur around four to six days after infection and last up to ten days. Furthermore, the dengue virus is classified as a flavivirus. These viruses only encode 10 proteins, one of which is NS5. We are specifically trying to target the NS5 protein in the dengue virus because it is very important to the virus’s life cycle. It is a large protein with two enzyme domains; one which is responsible for avoiding human immune response and the other that is vital for RNA synthesis. In our SIR, we used protein thermal shift assays to determine how efficient different compounds were at inhibiting this protein.
Screening Compounds to Identify an Inhibitor of the Dengue NS5 Protein
Dengue fever is a disease caused by any of the four related dengue viruses. It is a mosquito-borne disease that mainly occurs in tropical and subtropical regions. Approximately 400 million cases of dengue infections occur worldwide while 96 million cases result in dengue fever. Symptoms occur around four to six days after infection and last up to ten days. Furthermore, the dengue virus is classified as a flavivirus. These viruses only encode 10 proteins, one of which is NS5. We are specifically trying to target the NS5 protein in the dengue virus because it is very important to the virus’s life cycle. It is a large protein with two enzyme domains; one which is responsible for avoiding human immune response and the other that is vital for RNA synthesis. In our SIR, we used protein thermal shift assays to determine how efficient different compounds were at inhibiting this protein.