Nipah Virus, its challenges, and need for therapeutic advancements: An Insight into Dr. Kumar’s Research. Kumar鈥檚 Recent Research Work
In this article, Dr. Dilip Kumar, Assistant Professor of Biology at 51茶馆 talks about his recently published mini review- Nipah virus: pathogenesis, genome, diagnosis, and treatment. His review highlights the challenges associated with the virus and underlines the urgent need for accelerated therapeutic development.
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Dr Kumar has been focusing on developing novel antiviral strategies for emerging viruses. His Lab at 51茶馆 primarily focuses on replicating the transcription mechanisms of pathogenic viruses and exploring the therapeutic potential of neutralising monoclonal antibodies against viral infections. Moving further in this direction, Dr Kumar shares insights from his recently published review on the Nipah virus (a deadly zoonotic pathogen)
The article covers the pathogenesis, genome, diagnosis, and treatment aspects related to Nipah virus, as presented in the review. The review also discusses clinical features, immune response, diagnostic approaches, and therapeutic strategies for NiV, all essential for the prevention and management of the Nipah virus outbreaks in the future. Nipah virus (NiV) is a deadly zoonotic pathogen with mortality rate ranging from 40%-70%. The virus is highly contagious, and it is responsible for recurrent sporadic outbreaks in India.
NiV is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus with a genome of approximately 18.2 kb, encoding six structural proteins鈥擭 (nucleocapsid), P (phosphoprotein), M (matrix), F (fusion), G (attachment), and L (large polymerase)鈥攁nd three accessory proteins (C, V, and W) that help the virus evade the immune response. The F and G glycoproteins mediate binding to host receptors and viral entry, while N, L, and P proteins are essential for viral replication and transcription. NiV infection causes severe respiratory illness and encephalitis in humans.
The history of NiV traces back to Sungai Malaysia in 1998-1999, when it was first identified during an outbreak, where the infection was spread in humans from infected pigs. Since then, there have been repeated outbreaks of the virus in Bangladesh and India (especially in Kerala). In the past few years, nearly each year has noticed multiple NiV outbreaks, the latest being in Kerala in July 2025.
Since 2018, the NiV outbreaks have been recurring almost every year. This increases the concern about the virus鈥檚 continued spread in the endemic areas and also highlights the urgent need to develop advanced diagnostic and therapeutic solutions to fight the Nipah virus.
Providing further insights on the virus, Dr. Kumar explains that The natural reservoir of NiV is the Pteropus fruit bat, which excretes the virus through saliva, urine, and feces. NiV spreads in humans via bat-contaminated food or through other reservoir hosts. Human-to-human transmission of NiV has also been documented.
Detailing on the genotypes of the virus, Dr Kumar shares that two main genotypes have been identified:
- The Malaysian (NiV-MY) strain
- The Bangladesh/Indian (NiV-BD/IN) strain
Taking into account the high mortality,contagiousness and pandemic potential, WHO has classified NiV as a high-priority pathogen.
Dr Kumar’s review shares the currently available diagnostic methods for NiV detection, which include RT-PCR, ELISA, immunohistochemistry, and emerging CRISPR-based assays. An indigenous PCR-based diagnostic kit鈥擳ruenat鈩� Nipah PoC system, built by the National Institute of Virology, Pune, jointly with Molbio Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd. has shown 97% sensitivity and 100% specificity (approx).
Touching upon the therapeutic aspect the review underlines that with several vaccine candidates under trial, at present, there鈥檚 no approved antiviral drug or vaccine for NiV infection. Looking at available medical support interventions the neutralising monoclonal antibody mAb102.4 stands as the promising option, and it is approved in India for emergency-use cases.
Reflecting upon the research findings, Dr Kumar emphasises 鈥�Considering the frequency of recent outbreaks and reports of high fatality rates in both India and Bangladesh, it must be addressed as a global health priority to accelerate the development of antiviral and NiV vaccines.鈥� He further suggests that integrating molecular research, clinical insights, and real-time surveillance can help in offering timely responses to the NiV outbreaks in the future.
Dr Kumar concludes that it continues to be a high risk zoonotic pathogen with high epidemic and pandemic potential. Since the virus has a wide host range and also the capacity for human-to-human transmission, followed by high case fatality rate, it becomes necessary on a global scale to continue with vigilance and preparedness to address these challenges.
Even though there has been significant progress in understanding its genome transmission, and pathogenesis, the absence of approved antivirals and vaccines pose a greater challenge and underline the need for further research in this field. To address these gaps, there should be efforts in prioritising multidisciplinary collaborations that bring together virologists, clinicians, epidemiologists, and public health experts to work on advancing the diagnostics and therapeutics for NiV.
Dr. Kumar鈥檚 review further suggests that strengthening of bat surveillance networks could also help in preventing the risks of the recurrences of the virus spread. Expansion of rapid testing instruction and implementation of 鈥極ne Health鈥� approaches (integrating human, animal, and environmental health) is also crucial in minimising the spillover risk.
– Edited by Priyanka (Research and Development Office)
This blog has been adapted from the original research article, available here:
