Heat shock protein 90ß in the Vero cell membrane binds Japanese encephalitis virus

Wang, Yuan; Li, Yan; Ding, Tianbing

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is an acute and severe viral infection of the human central nervous system that is caused by JE virus (JEV) and is transmitted between animal hosts and humans by mosquitoes (mostly of the genus Culex) (1) . It is prevalent throughout Eastern and South Eastern Asia and has expanded onto the Cape York Peninsula of Northern Australia (2) (3) (4) ; it has affected approximately 60% of the global population in endemic countries at risk of exposure to JEV. JE primarily occurs in children under 15 years of age and the elderly when protective immunity decreases (2, 5) . Fortunately, most JEV infections are subclinical with a symptomatic-to-asymptomatic ratio of 1:25-1,000 (6, 7) . With thebroad administration of inactivated and attenuated live vaccines, the annual JE incidence is estimated to range from 50,000-175,000 cases. Approximately 20-30% of cases are fatal, and approximately 30-50% of survivors suffer serious neurologic, cognitive, or psychiatric complications several years thereafter (8) (9) (10) . Therefore, JE remains a significant health threat to the public worldwide.