Duke University research finds cells that target Dengue fever

Duke University researchers have found that cells that play a role in triggering a response […]

Duke University researchers have found that cells that play a role in triggering a response to bacteria and pathogens could also have a role in attacking dengue fever, a tropical disease for which there is no vaccine.

A Duke research team at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore studied mast cells in mice. Mast cells play a role in allergic and inflammatory events in the body. Researchers found that these cells can also trigger a response to a virus delivered by a mosquito bite.

“It appears the mast cells are activated and call immune system cells to the skin where they clear infection, which limits the spread of infection in the host,” lead researcher Ashley St. John, a research fellow with Duke-NUS in the Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Duke Department of Pathology in Durham, North Carolina, said in a statement.

Dengue fever is a virus that leads to fever, headache and muscle and joint pain. Severe cases can lead to the more serious and potentially fatal dengue hemorrhagic fever.

Duke researchers found that compared to mice with normal levels of mast cells, mice lacking mast cells had more of the virus in their lymph nodes and increased infection after measured injection with a small dose of dengue virus. The mast cells produce chemokines, a protein that can help bring some of the “killer cells” that target the virus.

Soman Abraham, professor of pathology and a mast cell expert who also works in Duke’s Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, said in a statement that the finding was important because there are no vaccines or effective therapies for dengue fever. Also, because mast cells are involved in events such as airway restriction during an asthma attack, the finding could also lead to applications in viral infections of the lung, airways and sinuses.

The research was supported by the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School with additional funding from the National Institutes of Health.

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