Viremia and Inflammatory Cytokines in Dengue: Interleukin-2 As a Biomarker of Infection, and Interferon-α and -γ As Markers of Primary Versus Secondary Infection

Overview

Journal Pathogens

Date 2023 Nov 25

PMID 38003826

Authors

Thais Bonato de Arruda

Lorena Bavia

Ana Luiza Pamplona Mosimann

Mateus Nobrega Aoki

Maria Lo Sarzi

Ivete Conchon-Costa

Pryscilla Fanini Wowk

Claudia Nunes Duarte Dos Santos

Wander Rogerio Pavanelli

Guilherme Ferreira Silveira

Juliano Bordignon

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The pathogenesis of (DENV) infection is complex and involves viral replication that may trigger an inflammatory response leading to severe disease. Here, we investigated the correlation between viremia and cytokine levels in the serum of DENV-infected patients. Between 2013 and 2014, 138 patients with a diagnosis of acute-phase DENV infection and 22 patients with a non-dengue acute febrile illness (AFI) were enrolled. Through a focus-forming assay (FFU), we determined the viremia levels in DENV-infected patients and observed a peak in the first two days after the onset of symptoms. A higher level of viremia was observed in primary versus secondary DENV-infected patients. Furthermore, no correlation was observed between viremia and inflammatory cytokine levels in DENV-infected patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed that IL-2 has the potential to act as a marker to distinguish dengue from other febrile illnesses and is positively correlated with Th1 cytokines. IFN-α and IFN-γ appear to be potential markers of primary versus secondary infection in DENV-infected patients, respectively. The results also indicate that viremia levels are not the main driving force behind inflammation in dengue and that cytokines could be used as infection biomarkers and for differentiation between primary versus secondary infection.

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