Arthritis models for studying chikungunya virus joint inflammation

Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) joint inflammation remains poorly understood, despite its clinical burden. This review surveys in vitro joint models which were originally developed for arthritis research and examine how they can be repurposed to study CHIKV joint pathology. We outline key considerations, limitations, and recommendations for adapting these models for infection studies, including facilitating infection susceptibility across joint models, tuning matrix composition, addressing cellular incompleteness through modeling relevant immune cells, improving culture longevity and reproducibility. Together, these models offer versatile and human-relevant approaches to replicate key features of joint inflammation in advancing the understanding of CHIKV-induced joint pathology. A review highlights how in vitro joint models adapted from arthritis research can be leveraged to study chikungunya virus–driven joint inflammation, immune–stromal interactions, and matrix degradation underlying acute and chronic arthralgia.