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Intracellular Cytokine Production By Dengue Virus-Specific T Cells Correlates With Subclinical Secondary Infection, Steven Hatch, Timothy Endy, Stephen Thomas, Anuja Mathew, James Potts, Pamela Pazoles, Daniel Libraty, Robert Gibbons, Alan Rothman

Alan Rothman

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 …