登革熱在南亞和東南亞、非洲及南美洲很多國家是流行病，在其他地方是一個新出現的威脅。它是由四種登革熱病毒（DENV-1、2、3和4）中的其中一種引起的， 由斑蚊傳播；目前沒有得到批準的疫苗，也沒有有效的特效療法。

登革熱病毒是小型黃病毒，很可能需要大量宿主因子才能傳播，因此關于這些因子的知識可能會導致潛在藥物作用目標及新的媒介控制策略的發現�，F在，通過對被DENV-2感染的果蠅細胞采用一種高通量RNAi篩選方法（果蠅與病毒媒介物種相關，較易用基因組學研究工具來操控），研究人員發現了超過100種登革熱病毒宿主因子候選對象，它們當中很多在人類細胞中也充當宿主因子。

推薦原始出處：

Nature 458, 1047-1050 (23 April 2009) | doi:10.1038/nature07967

Discovery of insect and human dengue virus host factors

October M. Sessions1,2, Nicholas J. Barrows2,3,4, Jayme A. Souza-Neto7, Timothy J. Robinson1,5,6, Christine L. Hershey8, Mary A. Rodgers8, Jose L. Ramirez7, George Dimopoulos7, Priscilla L. Yang8, James L. Pearson1,2,3 & Mariano A. Garcia-Blanco1,2,3,9

1 Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology,
2 Center for RNA Biology,
3 Duke RNAi Facility,
4 Institute for Genome Science and Policy,
5 Medical Scientist Training Program,
6 Program in Molecular Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA
7 Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and Malaria Research Institute, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21205-2179, USA
8 Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
9 Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore 169547

Dengue fever is the most frequent arthropod-borne viral disease of humans, with almost half of the world's population at risk of infection1. The high prevalence, lack of an effective vaccine, and absence of specific treatment conspire to make dengue fever a global public health threat1, 2. Given their compact genomes, dengue viruses (DENV-1–4) and other flaviviruses probably require an extensive number of host factors; however, only a limited number of human, and an even smaller number of insect host factors, have been identified3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Here we identify insect host factors required for DENV-2 propagation, by carrying out a genome-wide RNA interference screen in Drosophila melanogaster cells using a well-established 22,632 double-stranded RNA library. This screen identified 116 candidate dengue virus host factors (DVHFs). Although some were previously associated with flaviviruses (for example, V-ATPases and -glucosidases)3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, most of the DVHFs were newly implicated in dengue virus propagation. The dipteran DVHFs had 82 readily recognizable human homologues and, using a targeted short-interfering-RNA screen, we showed that 42 of these are human DVHFs. This indicates notable conservation of required factors between dipteran and human hosts. This work suggests new approaches to control infection in the insect vector and the mammalian host.