1. What is DenHunt?

DenHunt is a freely accessible online database comprising of Dengue virus (DENV) and human protein interactions.

2. Why was DenHunt created?

Currently dengue-human interactions data are found in literature and other publicly available databases but there is no single database solely focused on dengue-human interactions. DenHunt was thus created to offer consolidated platform hosting all known dengue-human interactions. Data integrated in DenHunt enhance understanding of dengue life cycle, molecular function of its proteins, pathways and infection, and thereby augment efforts towards discovery of drugs, drug targets and diagnostic biomarkers.

3. What are the data sources in DenHunt?

DenHunt comprises of manually verified literature from PubMed. Additionally, functional annotation data were obtained from publicly available annotation resources such as NCBI Entrez Gene database, and other online tools such as bioDBnet, Synergizer and GeneCards. The pathway information is from the KEGG pathway database.

4. What is unique about DenHunt, which cannot be found in other databases?

DenHunt provides enriched comprehensive and integrated data on dengue-human protein interactions. Though there are many databases that have virus-host interactions, dengue viral-host interactions are poorly represented in these databases with interactions extracted only from a few publications.

5. What type of interaction data can be obtained from DenHunt?

The database reports of three types of interactions: i) Direct interactions, where the human proteins directly interact with the viral proteins or RNA, (682 direct interactions between 11 viral components and 534 human proteins extracted from 103 publications), ii) Indirect interactions, where the human proteins affect viral replication but there exists no current evidence of them directly interacting with the viral components (382 indirect interactions extracted from 151 publications), iii) Differentially expressed interactions, genes or proteins whose expression patterns are altered during dengue viral infection, (4120 differentially expressed genes extracted from 41 publications).

6. How can I query DenHunt?

The enhanced user query interface enables users to perform searches by browsing the following sub query menus:

• Dengue – Human protein: Direct interactions.

Here the query can be made through the Dengue virus tab (viral components) or the Human protein tab. To retrieve interactions of the viral components, click on the any one of the viral components. The retrieved interactions are shown as a network and as a table. To search for the human protein interactions click and the Human protein tab and search via the human official gene symbol.

Viral protein query example Human protein query example

• Dengue – Human protein: indirect interactions.

Here the user can query the indirect interactions, where the human proteins affect viral replication but there exists no current evidence of them directly interacting with the viral components.

• Dengue – Human protein: expression variations.

Here the user can query the differentially expressed genes reported in dengue infected cells and patients.

• KEGG Pathways.Pathways targeted by Dengue virus.

Here the user can query through the pathway tab. Upon clicking on a specific pathway the user would visualize the pathway image file and the human proteins and the list of direct indirect and differentially expressed genes associated with the pathway.

• Dengue virus Host Dependency Factors (DVHFs)

Here the user can query the human proteins that are important for viral replication as inhibiting these proteins in various ways resulted in inhibition of viral replication.

7. Are there any future updates or modification in the pipeline?

Yes, we will continuously update the database.

8. Can researchers submit interactions to DenHunt?

Yes, upon enquiries researchers may submit interactions to the email id of authors in the contact page.

9. Can I download interaction data from DenHunt?

Yes, users may download the full DenHunt interaction data in a tab delimited format via the Download menu item.