Dynamics of cellular immune responses in the acute phase of dengue virus infection

Tomoyuki Yoshida, Tsutomu Omatsu, Akatsuki Saito, Yuko Katakai, Yuki Iwasaki, Terue Kurosawa, Masataka Hamano, Atsunori Higashino, Shinichiro Nakamura, Tomohiko Takasaki, Yasuhiro Yasutomi, Ichiro Kurane, Hirofumi Akari

Dengue virus (DENV) causes the most prevalent arthropod-borne viral infections in the world, with around 100 million cases recorded annually. Infection with DENV can lead to dengue fever and sometimes to fatal dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome. It has been shown that neutralizing antibody response is critical for the control of DENV, however, the implication of cellular immunity in the DENV infection remains to be elucidated. In this study we sought to examine the dynamics of cellular immune responses in the acute phase of DENV infection in a novel marmoset model that we recently developed. We found that the DENV infection in marmosets greatly induced responses of CD4/CD8 central memory T and NKT cells. Interestingly, the strength of the immune responses were greater in the animals infected with a dengue fever strain than those with a dengue hemorrhagic fever strain of DENV. In contrast, at the re-challenge of the same DENV strain as a primary infection, a neutralizing antibody induced likely played a critical role in sterilizing inhibition against the viral replication, resulting in strong but delayed responses of CD4/CD8 central memory T and NKT cells. Our results in this study may help better understand the dynamics of cellular and humoral immune responses in the control of DENV infection.

Archives of Virology (doi:10.1007/s00705-013-1618-6)

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