Flavivirus
The Flaviviridae are a family of positive, single-stranded, enveloped RNA viruses. They are found in arthropods (primarily ticks and mosquitoes), and can occasionally infect humans.
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Members of this family belong to a single genus, Flavivirus, and cause widespread morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Some of these mosquitoes-transmitted viruses include: Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile viruses, and Zika virus. Other Flaviviruses are transmitted by ticks and are responsible of encephalitis and hemorrhagic diseases: Tick-borne Encephalitis (TBE), Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD), Alkhurma disease, and Omsk hemorrhagic fever.
The recent outbreaks (2007-2016) of Zika virus in South Americas led to wide spread of Zika epidemic in the world.
Like other Flaviviruses, Zika virus is enveloped and icosahedral, and has a nonsegmented, single-stranded, 10 kb positive-sense RNA genome. The Zika virus genome encodes three structural proteins (the capsid protein, the precursor membrane protein, and the envelope protein) and seven nonstructural proteins (NS1, NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, and NS5).
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Recent Citations: Henderson, E. A. et al. Investigation of the immunogenicity of Zika glycan loop. Virol. J. 17, 1–15 (2020)
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