STAT3 inhibition mediated upregulation of multiple immune response pathways in dengue infection

Dengue infection is a world-wide public health threat infecting millions of people annually. Till date no specific antiviral or vaccine is available against dengue virus. Recent evidence indicates that targeting host STAT3 could prove to be an effective antiviral therapy against dengue infection. To explore the potential of STAT3 inhibition as an antiviral strategy, we utilized a STAT3 inhibitor stattic as antiviral agent and performed whole proteome analysis of mammalian cells by mass spectrometry. Differentially expressed proteins among the infected and stattic treated groups were sorted based on their fold change expression and their functional annotation studies were carried out to establish their biological networks. The results presented in the current study indicated that treatment with stattic induces several antiviral pathways to counteract dengue infection. Together with this, we also observed that treatment with stattic downregulates pathways involved in viral transcription and translation thus establishing STAT3 as a suitable target for the development of antiviral interventions. This study establishes the role of STAT3 inhibition as an alternative strategy to counteract DENV pathogenesis. Targeting STAT3 by stattic or similar molecules may help in identifying novel therapeutic interventions against DENV and probably other flaviviruses. •DENV upregulates cellular metabolic pathways to replicate effectively within the host.•DENV utilizes host transcriptional and translational machinery for its own replication, transcription and translation.•Inhibiting STAT3 by stattic upregulates some of the important immune responsive pathways to counteract DENV infection.•Stattic treatment on virus infected cells downregulates cellular pathways hijacked by DENV for its own transcription.•Inhibiting STAT3 by stattic or “stattic-like” molecules may counteract DENV severity in humans.