Immune cell phenotypes associated with disease severity and long-term neutralizing antibody titers after natural dengue virus infection

Prior immunological exposure to dengue virus can be both protective and disease-enhancing during subse- quent infections with different dengue virus serotypes. We provide here a systematic, longitudinal analysis of B cell, T cell, and antibody responses in the same patients.
Conclusion:
Antibody responses as well as T and B cell acti- vation differentiate primary from secondary responses. Hospitalization is associated with lower frequencies of activated, terminally differentiated T cells and higher percentages of effector memory CD4 T cells. Patients with more severe disease tend to have higher percentages of plasmablasts. This does not translate into long- term antibody titers, since neutralizing titers after 6 months correlate with percentages of specific memory B cells, but not with acute plasmablast activation. The same control sample FMFG was used in all experiments.