ప్రోటీమిక్స్ & బయోఇన్ఫర్మేటిక్స్ జర్నల్
అందరికి ప్రవేశం

నైరూప్య

Impact of Microarray Technology in Influenza Virus Research and Diagnostics

Sanjay Mukherjee and Alok K. Chakrabarti

Influenza A viruses cause 300,000-500,000 deaths every year across the globe and are continues threat to public health. There have been five influenza pandemics till date. In spite of the recent advances in the field of virus research there is no steady vaccine against influenza A viruses. Flu shots are given every year in many countries but remain effective only for one season. One of the main reasons of vaccine ineffectiveness is the high mutation rate in the influenza A genome caused by a poor error prone replication mechanism and virus recombination in the host cells resulting in variation in antigenic proteins. In order to overcome this problem scientists have enabled different strategies to control virus infectivity. Now in place of viruses, host responses are studied and modified in order to obtain an effective immune response against the viruses. Also, new strategies like rapid large scale virus diagnosis and development of effective vaccines using reverse genetics technique are being used for improvement of antiviral counter measures. Microarray technique, which is a high throughput method for diagnosis as well as assessment of large number of biomolecules in one attempt, has played an important role in understanding the etiology and pathogenesis of influenza A viruses. In this review we have discussed significance of microarray technology in influenza virus research during last one decade and highlighted its application in extensive diagnostics and genome wide transcriptional profiling of host responses to virus infection.