Title
Intracellular cytokine production by dengue virus-specific T cells correlates with subclinical secondary infection
UMMS Affiliation
Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research; Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Clinical and Population Health Research Program; Department of Medicine
Date
5-1-2011
Document Type
Article
Subjects
Adolescent; Case-Control Studies; Child; Cytokines; Dengue; Dengue Virus; Humans; T-Lymphocytes
Disciplines
Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences | Women's Studies
Abstract
The pathophysiology of dengue virus infection remains poorly understood, although secondary infection is strongly associated with more severe disease. In the present study, we performed a nested, case-control study comparing the responses of pre-illness peripheral blood mononuclear cells between children who would subsequently develop either subclinical or symptomatic secondary infection 6-11 months after the baseline blood samples were obtained and frozen. We analyzed intracellular cytokine production by CD4(+) and CD8(+) cells in response to stimulation with dengue antigen. We found higher frequencies of dengue virus-specific TNFalpha, IFNgamma-, and IL-2-producing T cells among schoolchildren who subsequently developed subclinical infection, compared with those who developed symptomatic secondary dengue virus infection. Although other studies have correlated immune responses during secondary infection with severity of disease, to our knowledge this is the first study to demonstrate a pre-infection dengue-specific immune response that correlates specifically with a subclinical secondary infection.
Rights and Permissions
Citation: J Infect Dis. 2011 May 1;203(9):1282-91. Epub 2011 Feb 18. Link to article on publisher's site
Related Resources
PubMed ID
21335561
