Antiviral treatment of chikungunya virus infection.

Chikungunya virus is a typical emerging virus which has been responsible for several million cases of human infections since 2004. No antiviral treatment is currently available. The antimalarial chloroquine has been used in the past but recent studies suggest that it is not or poorly active in vivo. A number of tracks are currently under investigation (inhibition of viral enzymes, of virus entry or maturation, enhancement of immunological response) and new animal models have been made available, including a mouse model and a non-human primate model. We review here the main perspectives of chikungunya antiviral treatment.