What is it about?
India is one of the hotspots of dengue infection. The objective of the study was to assess whether having previous exposure to dengue virus could influence how the body will respond to repeat infections with dengue virus. Here, we analyzed samples from febrile patients to measure the amount of dengue virus genetic material in the blood, the type of virus and the amount of antibodies, which are proteins produced by the host in response to dengue virus infection. The majority of patient samples demonstrated the capability to restrict all four types of dengue virus in circulation within the country, but reduced capacity to restrict when it comes to international dengue virus types. These data will help to inform future dengue vaccine design and clinical studies in India.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The development of dengue vaccines is faced with the challenge of antibody-dependent enhancement wherein, antibodies from prior infection increases the odds of severe disease in subsequent infection with a different serotype. Our study shows that in endemic countries where people are exposed to dengue viruses every season, antibodies from a prior dengue infection can protect individuals from future infections.
Perspectives
Cross-reactivity and antibody-dependent enhancement are two major challenges in flavivirus infections. Many low-income and middle-income countries are endemic to some of the flaviviruses namely, dengue virus, West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis virus and Zika virus. At population level, this has resulted in a situation wherein a large number of people could be at the risk of disease enhancement or may be protected from severe disease due to repeated exposure to one or more of the flaviviruses. Understanding the dynamics of immune response at the population level and characterizing circulating flaviviruses are imperative to developing vaccines that can be deployed in the settings that need them the most and that can confer protection without disease enhancement.
Dr Guruprasad R Medigeshi
Translational Health Science and Technology Institute
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Neutralizing antibodies from prior exposure to dengue virus negatively correlate with viremia on re-infection, Communications Medicine, October 2023, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1038/s43856-023-00378-7.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
