T cell immunity to dengue virus and implications for vaccine design

ABSTRACT

Dengue virus infections are increasing at an alarming rate in many tropical and subtropical countries and represent, in some of these areas, a leading cause of hospitalization and death among children. The lack of a clear definition of the correlates of protection from severe dengue disease represents a major hurdle for vaccine development. In particular, the role of T lymphocytes during dengue infection remains unclear and there is evidence suggesting that these cells may be important for both protective immunity and/or immunopathology. In this review we discuss the findings that support a protective role of T cells versus those supporting their involvement in pathogenesis. A better understanding of T cell immunity is urgently needed for the development of safe and efficacious vaccines.

KEYWORDS:

• DENV
• T cells
• protective immunity
• immunopathology
• T cell epitopes
• primary infection
• secondary infection
• vaccines

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported by a Cooperative Basic Research Grant - New Investigator Grant (CBRG-NIG R-913-301-289-213) of the Singapore National Medical Research Council to Laura Rivino and by a Singapore Translational Research (STaR) Investigator Award (NMRC/STaR/013/2012) to Antonio Bertoletti. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed