Short report: increased level of serum nitric oxide in patients with dengue

Nitric oxide (NO) has been involved in several infectious diseases. Virus dengue is capable of inducing increased levels of NO when cocultured with human Kupffer and spleen cells. However, no reports describe the levels of NO in patients with dengue infection. Increased levels of NO were found in patients with the classic form of the disease; however, in the hemorrhagic form of the disease, similar levels to those of healthy controls were found. In vitro studies showed no increased levels of NO when human platelets were incubated with the virus. Increased NO in classical dengue could be important in the evolution from the nonhemorrhagic to the hemorrhagic forms of dengue.