Dengue Infection Impairs Immune Defense Against Zika

A memory B cell response to Zika virus in dengue-infected patients produced antibodies that were poorly neutralizing in vitro and instead enhanced infection.

Written byCatherine Offord

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3-D representation of Zika virionWIKIMEDIA, MANUEL ALMAGRO RIVAS

Previous exposure to dengue virus could dampen a patient’s immune response to Zika, and potentially even aid infection, according to recent work carried out by US researchers. In a study published today (August 18) in Science Immunology, the team found that an early memory B cell response to Zika infection in patients who had already been exposed to dengue produced weak antibodies against Zika virus in vitro.

“It’s an important paper,” says Davide Robbiani, who studies cross-reactivity in antibodies for dengue and Zika virus at Rockefeller University, but was not involved in the current study. “It broadens our knowledge of the antibody responses to these viruses and informs how vaccines should be designed.”

At the structural level, Zika virus shows substantial similarities to dengue, another ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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