Dengue virus infection and Nrf2 regulation of oxidative stress

Abstract

Dengue virus is a positive sense, single-stranded RNA virus of the Flaviviridae family that causes mild to severe dengue fever in hundreds of millions of people in tropical/subtropical regions of the world each year. Like many other viruses, dengue has evolved strategies to evade the innate immune response of the host to establish infection. Here we provide an overview of the major alterations provoked by dengue in infected cells, that is, oxidative stress, metabolic reprogramming, and antiviral/inflammatory responses. These biological processes are interconnected and coordinated through the anti-oxidant transcription factor Nrf2, which functions at the interface of metabolism and antiviral immunity.