Search

Background: Dengue is a kind of infectious disease that was distributed in the tropical and sub-tropical areas. To date, there is no clinically approved dengue vaccine or antiviral for humans, even though there have been great efforts towards this end. Therefore, finding the effective compound against dengue virus (DENV) replication is very important. Among the complex compounds, copper(II)-imidazole derivatives are of interest because of their biological and medicinal benefits., Materials and Methods: In the present study, antiviral activity of [Cu(2,4,5-triphenylimidazole) 2 ] n , was evaluated against different stages of dengue virus type 2 (DENV-2) replication in Vero cell using focus forming unit reduction assay and quantitative ELISA., Results: [Cu(2,4,5-triphenylimidazole) 2 ] n inhibited DENV-2 replication in Vero cells with IC 50 = 2.3 μg/ml and SI= 19.42 when cells were treated 2 days after virus infection, whereas its CC 50 for cytotoxicity to Vero cells was 44.174 μg/ml., Conclusion: The compound has high anti-DENV2 activity, less toxicity, and a high possibility to be considered a drug candidate., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest: Authors declare that they have no competing interest.

Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are the primary and secondary vectors, respectively, of dengue, the most important arboviral disease in the world. The aim of this study was to detect and serotype dengue viruses (DENV) in the vectors Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus in Surabaya, Indonesia. Between 2008 and 2015, 16,605 Aedes mosquitoes were collected in 15 sub-districts of Surabaya. Ae. aegypti was dominant (90.9%), whereas few Ae. albopictus were collected (9.1%). A total of 330 pools of adult Aedes mosquitoes were subjected to the serotyping of DENV by RT-PCR. DENV-1 (52.3%) was the most frequently detected serotype, followed by DENV-2 (40.3%), DENV-4 (4.6%), and DENV-3 (2.8%). The average minimum infection rate for Ae. aegypti in various sub-districts of Surabaya was 7.2 per 1,000 mosquitoes, while that for Ae. albopictus was 0.7 per 1,000 mosquitoes. The results showed that the predominantly circulating DENV serotype in mosquitoes continuously shifted from DENV-2 (2008) to DENV-1 (2009-2012), to DENV-2 again (2013-2014), and then back to DENV-1 (2015). The circulating DENV serotypes in mosquitoes were generally consistent with those in humans. Therefore, the surveillance of infected mosquitoes with DENV might provide an early warning sign for the risk of future dengue outbreaks.

Background: Trenggalek district is a hypoendemic malaria area with mainly imported cases brought by migrant workers from islands outside Java. During malaria surveillance in 2015, no malaria cases were found microscopically, but some cases were positive by PCR. Therefore, a study was conducted to prove that local malaria transmission still occur., Methods: The adult villagers were invited to the house of the head of this village to be screened for malaria using aseptic venipuncture of 1 mL blood upon informed consent. Thin and thick blood films as well as blood spots on filter paper were made for each subject. The blood films were stained with Giemsa and the blood spots were used to extract DNA for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification to determine the malaria infection. In addition, the history of malaria infection and travel to malaria endemic areas were recorded. Entomologic survey to detect the existence of anopheline vector was also conducted., Results: Of the total 64 subjects that participated in the survey, no malaria parasites were found through microscopic examination of the blood films. The PCR analysis found six positive cases (two Plasmodium falciparum, one Plasmodium vivax and two mixed infection of both species), and two of them had no history of malaria and have never travelled to malaria endemic area. Entomologic survey using human bait trap detected the existence of Anopheles indefinitus that was found to be positive for P. vivax by PCR., Conclusions: The results indicated that although we did not find any microscopically slide positive cases, six PCR positive subjects were found. The fact that 2 of the 6 malaria positive subjects have never travelled to malaria endemic area together with the existence of the vector confirm the occurence of local transmission of malaria in the area.