Germinal center reaction following cutaneous dengue virus infection in immune-competent mice

Dengue virus (DENV) has four serotypes, which can cause from asymptomatic disease to severe dengue. Heterologous secondary infections have been associated to a greater risk of potentially fatal dengue due to non-neutralizing memory antibodies (Abs), which facilitate the infection, such as anti-precursor membrane (prM) Abs, among other mechanisms. Usually, class-switched memory Abs are generated mainly through germinal centers (GCs). However, the cellular events underlying these Ab responses to DENV, especially during repeated/secondary infections, have been poorly studied. We wanted to know whether there is involvement of GC reactions during cutaneous DENV infection and whether there is any sort of preferential Ab responses to defined viral proteins. Intradermal DENV inoculation at a relatively low dose efficiently infects immune-competent BALB/c mice, inducing higher quantities of DENV-specific GC B cells and larger GCs than the control conditions. Interestingly, GCs exhibited as much prM as envelope (E) and non-structural 3 viral proteins in situ. Intriguingly, despite the much larger abundance of E protein than of prM protein in the virions, infected animals showed similar amounts of circulating Abs and Ag-specific GC B cells both for prM and for E proteins, even significantly higher for prM. To the best of our knowledge, there are no reports of the GC responses during DENV infection. This relatively stronger anti-prM response could be triggered by DENV to preferentially promote Abs against certain viral proteins, which might favor infections by facilitating DENV invasion of host cells. It is thus conceivably that DENV might have evolved to induce this kind of Ab responses.