Hyderabad, July 13 -- Dengue virus infections pose a significant threat to human health currently, as it has been reported from nearly 140 countries. About 40 per cent of the world's population is at the risk of dengue virus infections. There is no specific drug or potential vaccine for these infections. The lack of a complete understanding of the pathogenesis is one of the hurdles for developing antivirals for this infection.

The 11 kb size gnome (RNA) genome of this dengue virus encodes three structural and seven non-structural (NS) proteins along with two un-translated regions, one each on both ends. Amongst them, dengue protease (NS3), a non-structural protein, plays a pivotal role in poly-protein processing and virus multiplication....