Figure 2.

Flavivirus life cycle, highlighting the capsid protein role. (a) Flavivirus life cycle. The virion enters the host cell by clathrin-mediated endocytosis (1). Fusion of the viral envelope and the cell membrane is promoted by acidification of the endosome (2), followed by the viral genome release into the cytoplasm (3). The viral genome is translated into a polyprotein that is cleaved into 10 proteins: three structural and seven non-structural (4). Next, replication occurs surrounding the ER and LDs (5). This process is followed by virus packaging and assembly, to form new infectious viral particles (6) that follow a secretory pathway, being released through exocytosis (7). (b) The C protein interacts with host LDs and the viral genome, interactions that are crucial for DENV replication and genome packaging, respectively. Those interactions might be targeted in future therapeutic strategies. Adapted from [69,76].