Abstract:
Dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) is one of the major health problems in
tropical and subtropical areas affecting and causing mortality in mostly children of
school age. The problem has recently deteriorated due to increased urbanization,
inefficient mosquito control, and rapid communication. The disease is caused by
dengue virus of the Flavivirus genus. The virus has four serotypes with Aedes aegypti
mosquito as vector. Epidemiological studies suggest that DHF occurs predominantly
in those responses secondarily to a heterotypic virus. The pathogenesis is not well
defined.
Cellular-mediated immunity has been proposed to be one of the factors
contributing to the pathogenesis of disease as well as playing roles in protective
immunity. However, insight into the role of these T cells has been impeded by the
lack of information on dengue T cell epitopes associated with common HLA found in
endemic population. This study was designed to identify and characterise dengue T
cell epitopes in the Thai population, and to characterise T cell responses against the
virus in patients with different severity. Here, a novel HLA-A*11 restricted epitope,
residues 134-144, and HLA-B*38 restricted epitope, residues 286-295, located in NS3
protein were characterised. Since HLA-A*11 is one of the most prevalent HLA class I
molecules expressed in the Thai population, this study therefore focused on the first
characterised HLA-A*11 restricted dengue specific CTL epitope.
About one fourth of the samples from normal healthy Thai individuals showed
a response against this epitope whereas all of 2 week follow up samples from dengueinfected
patients gave the response. Interestingly, almost all of the acute samples
showed no response against the epitope even though the dengue-specific T cells were
detectable. Phenotypes of the T cells during the acute phase, as demonstrated by
dengue peptide HLA tetramers, were found to be activated and proliferating; and
showed markers of apoptosis. Determination of T cell affinity towards dengue
serotype-specific peptides showed low affinity for the currently infecting virus, but
higher affinity for other serotype - probably of previously encountered serotype. This
indicates an original antigenic sin phenomenon, not dissimilar to those described in
influenza viruses. Profound T cell activation and massive cell death may contribute to
the systemic disturbances leading to DHF/DSS, and original antigenic sin in the T cell
responses may suppress/delay viral elimination leading to higher viral loads and
increased immunopathology