Aptamer-based strategies to create novel biotechnological tools against Arboviruses

Infections by Arthropod-borne virus (arbovirus) represent nowadays a significant global health problem. In recent years, the world has experienced several epidemics produced by arboviruses. Some of these viruses, such as Dengue, were already known for a long time while others have recently emerged to become a huge health threat like Chikungunya, Zika or Mayaro viruses. In fact, over 100 viruses cause infections and lead to what is globally termed as Arboviral diseases in humans, which annually produce more than 1 million deaths worldwide. Being spread from humans to arthropods, including mosquitos, ticks and flies, these viruses could be potentially transmitted from several vectors to humans triggering the next hemisphere-wide epidemic. Furthermore, the geographical spread and abundance of transmitting vectors, influenced by the consequent climate changes, are a of great concern to public health organizations in EU-LAC. All scenarios point to the need of creating new strategies to anticipate the occurrence of a possible new pandemic. Among those, two are of greater importance to enhance our preparedness: i) easy and rapid to deploy Arbovirus detection assays; and, ii) therapeutic/pharmacological candidate at advanced pre-clinical stages. In this context, ABSarbo is focused on the implementation of preventive strategies to rapidly address these emerging diseases by applying state-of-the-art and multidisciplinary aptamer-centered techniques in order to anticipate and minimize arboviruses' impact worldwide, and to develop diagnostic methods able to differentially recognize the most dangerous and abundant arboviruses found in our regions, as well as new treatment opportunities.