TRICHOLOGY AND COSMETOLOGY Open Journal http://dx.doi.org/10.17140/TCOJ-1-106 Trichol Cosmetol Open J Danúbia Sá-Caputo, PhD 1,2 ; Laisa Liane Paineiras-Domingos, MSc 1,2 ; Eliane O. Guedes-Aguiar, MSc 2,4 ; Rafaelle P. Carvalho-Lima, MSc 2,3 ; Severo de Paoli, PhD 2 ; Danielle Soares Morel, BSc 1,2 ; Igor Bastos, BSc 2 ; Clailson H. A. Farias, BSc 2 ; Cláudia F. Figueiredo, BSc 2 ; Glenda Dias, BSc 2 ; Eric H. F. Frederico, MSc 2,5 ; Mario Bernardo- Filho, PhD 2 1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Médicas, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil 2 Laboratório de Vibrações Mecânicas e Práticas Integrativas e Complementares, Departamento de Biofísica e Biometria, Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcântara Gomes, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil 3 Mestrado Proissional em Saúde, Medicina Laboratorial e Tecnologia Forense, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil 4 Programa de Pós Graduação em Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brasil 5 Programa de Pós Graduação em Biociências, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil * Corresponding author Laisa Liane Paineiras-Domingos, MSc Laboratório de Vibrações Mecânicas e Práticas Integrativas e Complementares Departamento de Biofísica e Biometria Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcântara Gomes, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Av. 28 de Setembro 87, fundos, 4º andar, 20551031, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil Tel. 55 21 28688332 E-mail: laisanit@gmail.com Article History Received: January 17 th , 2017 Accepted: February 27 th , 2017 Published: February 27 th , 2017 Citation Sá-Caputo D, Paineiras-Domingos LL, Guedes-Aguiar EO, et al. Could hair loss be a relevant symptom as- sociated with chikungunya?. Trichol Cosmetol Open J. 2017; 1(1): 25-30. doi: 10.17140/TCOJ-1-106 Copyright ©2017 Paineiras-Domingos LL. This is an open access article dis- tributed under the Creative Com- mons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which per- mits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is prop- erly cited. Volume 1 : Issue 1 Article Ref. #: 1000TCOJ1106 Could Hair Loss be a Relevant Symptom Associated with Chikungunya? Page 25 Systematic Review ABSTRACT Chikungunya (CHIK) is a disease caused by a mosquito-borne alphavirus (the mosquitos Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus). The chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is present all over the world. Several clinical symptoms have been associated with CHIK including hair loss. The aim of this review is to present some symptoms related to CHIK, tissues and organs targeted by the CHIKV and to suggest how the infection can lead to hair loss. Searches were performed to verify the number of publications (NP) with the keywords “Chikungunya” and (i) “fever, or arthralgia, or rash, or myalgia, or fatigue, or depression, or insomnia, or pruritus, or patches, nausea, or vomiting, or headache, or erythema or hair loss” and (ii) some organs or tissues that are target to the arboviral alphaviruses associated with this disease. The total number of articles with the keyword “chikungunya” was 3176. Fever was the most cited symptoms and 50% of the publications were related to this symptom. Also, hair loss was found to be associated with CHIKV infection. Skin being the most cited organ, the total number of publications with “skin” under chikungunya summed up to only 2.77%. Although, fever is the most reported, arthralgia and rash have an important NP, and (ii) the main targets of CHIKV would be skin, kidneys and brain. A small NP is found with CHIK and hair loss. Hair loss may be idiopathic, and would be associated with a genetic predisposition, metabolic and hormonal abnormalities and aging. Also, as hair does not have a vital function in humans, it is possible to say that hair loss could not be considered in the clinical evaluation of the patient with CHIK. It is therefore possible to conclude that occurrence of hair loss is underestimated in CHIK. KEYWORDS: Chikungunya; Hair loss; Aedes mosquitoes; Aedes aegypti; Aedes albopictus. INTRODUCTION Chikungunya (CHIK) is a disease caused by a mosquito-borne alphavirus, called the Chikun- gunya virus (CHIKV). It is found that CHIKV circulates in two distinct transmission cycles (enzootic transmission and urban transmission). The enzootic transmission occurs among non- human primates and perhaps other vertebrates by arboreal Aedes spp. mosquitoes in sub-Sa- haran African sylvatic foci. The urban transmission occurs in humans by Aedes mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus). 1,2 CHIKV is an enveloped, RNA positive-strand alphavirus belonging to the Togaviridae family. 3