Increased adaptive immune responses and proper feedback regulation protect against clinical dengue

TL;DR

This study reveals that asymptomatic dengue infections involve enhanced adaptive immune responses and feedback regulation, which effectively eliminate the virus without causing symptoms, informing future vaccine strategies.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of immune responses in asymptomatic versus symptomatic dengue infections, highlighting the role of adaptive immunity and feedback mechanisms.

Findings

Asymptomatic individuals show increased T cell apoptosis pathways.

Proper feedback regulation correlates with symptom-free infection.

Adaptive immune activation is key to virus clearance without symptoms.

Abstract

Dengue is the most prevalent arthropod-borne viral disease. Clinical symptoms of dengue virus (DENV) infection range from classical mild dengue fever to severe, life-threatening dengue shock syndrome. However, most DENV infections cause few or no symptoms. Asymptomatic DENV-infected patients provide a unique opportunity to decipher the host immune responses leading to virus elimination without negative impact on t v 'health. We used an integrated approach of transcriptional profiling and immunological analysis comparing a Cambodian population of strictly asymptomatic viremic individuals with clinical dengue patients. Whereas inflammatory pathways and innate immune responses were similar between asymptomatic individuals and clinical dengue patients, expression of proteins related to antigen presentation and subsequent T and B cell activation pathways were differentially regulated, independent of viral load or previous DENV infection. Feedback mechanisms controlled the immune response in asymptomatic viremic individuals as demonstrated by increased activation of T cell apoptosis-related pathways and Fc$\gamma$RIIB signaling associated with decreased anti-DENV specific antibody concentrations. Taken together, our data illustrate that symptom-free DENV infection in children is determined by increased activation of the adaptive immune compartment and proper control mechanisms leading to elimination of viral infection without excessive immune activation, having implications for novel vaccine development strategies.