The life-threatening re-emerged chikungunya virus (CHIKV) can cause an epidemic outbreak and still has no vaccine available so far. Alphavirus unique domain (AUD) of CHIKV nsP3 is a multifunctional domain that remains conserved among alphaviruses and is critical for CHIKV replication. The understanding of AUD-host protein-protein interactions and their association with the cellular processes concerning CHIKV infection are not well studied. In the current study, the protein-protein interactions of AUD and its human host were elucidated by screening of universal human cDNA library using yeast two-hybrid system. The chosen interactions were further validated by GST pull-down assay, and their network mapping was analyzed. The study revealed that the identified interactors are linked with the vesicle trafficking and transcription corepressor activities. Further, the interfacial residues of interactions between viral and host proteins were predicted, which will further provide the new platform to develop novel antivirals.

危及生命的重新出现的基孔肯雅病毒 (CHIKV) 可导致流行病爆发，至今仍没有可用的疫苗。CHIKV nsP3 的甲病毒独特域 (AUD) 是一个多功能域，在甲病毒中保持保守，对 CHIKV 复制至关重要。对 AUD-宿主蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用的理解及其与 CHIKV 感染的细胞过程的关联尚未得到很好的研究。在目前的研究中，通过使用酵母双杂交系统筛选人类通用 cDNA 文库，阐明了 AUD 与其人类宿主的蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用。选择的相互作用通过 GST 下拉分析进一步验证，并分析了它们的网络映射。该研究表明，已确定的相互作用物与囊泡运输和转录辅阻遏物活动有关。