Dengue is a systemic viral infection transmitted between humans by Aedes mosquitoes1. For some patients dengue is a life-threatening illness2. There are currently no licensed vaccines or specific therapeutics, and substantial vector control efforts have not stopped its rapid emergence and global spread3. The contemporary worldwide distribution of the risk of dengue virus infection4 and its public health burden are poorly known2,5. Here we undertake an exhaustive assembly of known records of dengue occurrence worldwide, and use a formal modelling framework to map the global distribution of dengue risk. We then pair the resulting risk map with detailed longitudinal information from dengue cohort studies and population surfaces to infer the public health burden of dengue in 2010. We predict dengue to be ubiquitous throughout the tropics, with local spatial variations in risk influenced strongly by rainfall, temperature and the degree of urbanisation. Using cartographic approaches, we estimate there to be 390 million (95 percent credible interval 284-528) dengue infections per year, of which 96 million (67-136) manifest apparently (any level of clinical or sub-clinical severity). This infection total is more than three times the dengue burden estimate of the World Health Organization2. Stratification of our estimates by country allows comparison with national dengue reporting, after taking into account the probability of an apparent infection being formally reported. The most notable differences are discussed. These new risk maps and infection estimates provide novel insights into the global, regional and national public health burden imposed by dengue. We anticipate that they will provide a starting point for a wider discussion about the global impact of this disease and will help guide improvements in disease control strategies using vaccine, drug and vector control methods and in their economic evaluation. [285]

Avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses cause severe disease in humans 1,2 , but the basis for their virulence remains unclear. In vitro and animal studies indicate that high and disseminated viral replication is important for disease pathogenesis [3][4][5] . Laboratory experiments suggest that virusinduced cytokine dysregulation may contribute to disease severity [6][7][8][9] . To assess the relevance of these findings for human disease, we performed virological and immunological studies in 18 individuals with H5N1 and 8 individuals infected with human influenza virus subtypes. Influenza H5N1 infection in humans is characterized by high pharyngeal virus loads and frequent detection of viral RNA in rectum and blood. Viral RNA in blood was present only in fatal H5N1 cases and was associated with higher pharyngeal viral loads. We observed low peripheral blood Tlymphocyte counts and high chemokine and cytokine levels in H5N1-infected individuals, particularly in those who died, and these correlated with pharyngeal viral loads. Genetic characterization of H5N1 viruses revealed mutations in the viral polymerase complex associated COMPETING INTERESTS STATEMENTThe authors declare that they have no competing financial interests. Influenza H5N1 viruses cause severe and often fatal disease in humans that is characterized by fulminant pneumonia and multi-organ failure 1,2 . High replication efficiency, broad tissue tropism and systemic replication seem to determine the pathogenicity of H5N1 viruses in animals [3][4][5] . To examine the relevance of these viral properties in the context of human disease, we carried out virological analyses in respiratory and non-respiratory specimens of 18 previously healthy individuals with influenza H5N1 who were admitted to referral hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City during the years 2004 and 2005, of whom 13 died. (Table 1). For comparison, we studied eight patients who were hospitalized during the same period with human influenza H3N2 or H1N1. These patients presented earlier in the course of illness (Table 1), which may be explained by their origin from Ho Chi Minh City or neighboring provinces, in contrast with H5N1 patients who were mostly from more distant provinces. Europe PMC Funders GroupDespite their presentation late in the course of illness, we were able to isolate virus from pharyngeal specimens of 12 of 16 H5N1-infected individuals (Table 2). Genetic characterization and phylogenetic analysis revealed that all viral strains were of the genotype Z, H5N1 sublineage of viruses prevalent in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, as previously reported 10 . Pairwise comparison of all gene segments of viruses isolated from eight fatal and four surviving cases did not reveal unique amino acid changes in either group. No viruses contained Glu92 in the NS1 protein, which is associated with increased virulence of H5N1 viruses 6 , but all contained the recently reported PDZ-domain ligand ESEV 11 . An E627K substitution in the viral polymerase basic protein 2 (PB2), which is associated with adap...

SUMMARY The cytokine storm has captured the attention of the public and the scientific community alike, and while the general notion of an excessive or uncontrolled release of proinflammatory cytokines is well known, the concept of a cytokine storm and the biological consequences of cytokine overproduction are not clearly defined. Cytokine storms are associated with a wide variety of infectious and noninfectious diseases. The term was popularized largely in the context of avian H5N1 influenza virus infection, bringing the term into popular media. In this review, we focus on the cytokine storm in the context of virus infection, and we highlight how high-throughput genomic methods are revealing the importance of the kinetics of cytokine gene expression and the remarkable degree of redundancy and overlap in cytokine signaling. We also address evidence for and against the role of the cytokine storm in the pathology of clinical and infectious disease and discuss why it has been so difficult to use knowledge of the cytokine storm and immunomodulatory therapies to improve the clinical outcomes for patients with severe acute infections.

Dengue fever and dengue haemorrhagic fever are important arthropod-borne viral diseases. Each year, there are ~50 million dengue infections and ~500,000 individuals are hospitalized with dengue haemorrhagic fever, mainly in Southeast Asia, the Pacific and the Americas. Illness is produced by any of the four dengue virus serotypes. A global strategy aimed at increasing the capacity for surveillance and outbreak response, changing behaviours and reducing the disease burden using integrated vector management in conjunction with early and accurate diagnosis has been advocated. Antiviral drugs and vaccines that are currently under development could also make an important contribution to dengue control in the future.Dengue is the most important arthropod-borne viral infection of humans. Worldwide, an estimated 2.5 billion people are at risk of infection, approximately 975 million of whom live in urban areas in tropical and sub-tropical countries in Southeast Asia, the Pacific and the Americas 1 . Transmission also occurs in Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, and rural Europe PMC Funders GroupAuthor Manuscript Nat Rev Microbiol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 February 19. Published in final edited form as:Nat Rev Microbiol. 2010 December ; 8(12 0): S7-16. doi:10.1038/nrmicro2460. Europe PMC Funders Author ManuscriptsEurope PMC Funders Author Manuscripts communities are increasingly being affected. It is estimated that more than 50 million infections occur each year, including 500,000 hospitalizations for dengue haemorrhagic fever, mainly among children, with the case fatality rate exceeding 5% in some areas [1][2][3][4] . The geographical areas in which dengue transmission occurs have expanded in recent years (FIG. 1), and all four dengue virus serotypes (DENV-1-4) are now circulating in Asia, Africa and the Americas, a dramatically different scenario from that which prevailed 20 or 30 years ago (FIG. 2). The molecular epidemiology of these serotypes has been studied in an attempt to understand their evolutionary relationships 11 .This Review will provide an update on our understanding of the pathogenesis of this successful pathogen, how we diagnose and control infection and the progress that has been made in vaccine development. Dengue virus pathogenesisDengue viruses belong to the genus flavivirus within the Flaviviridae family. DENV-1-4 evolved in non-human primates from a common ancestor and each entered the urban cycle independently an estimated 500-1,000 years ago 12 . The virion comprises a spherical particle, 40-50 nm in diameter, with a lipopolysaccharide envelope. The positive singlestrand RNA genome (FIG. 3), which is approximately 11 kb in length, has a single open reading frame that encodes three structural proteins -the capsid (C), membrane (M) and envelope (E) glycoproteins -and seven non-structural proteins (NS1, NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, NS4B and NS5 [18][19][20] . ADE occurs when mononuclear phagocytes are infected through their Fc receptors by immune complexes that form between DE...

engue is a self-limited, systemic viral infection transmitted between humans by mosquitoes. The rapidly expanding global footprint of dengue is a public health challenge with an economic burden that is currently unmet by licensed vaccines, specific therapeutic agents, or efficient vectorcontrol strategies. This review highlights our current understanding of dengue, including its clinical manifestations, pathogenesis, tests that are used to diagnose it, and its management and prevention. De ter mina n t s of the Cur r en t Dengue Pa ndemic The global burden of dengue is large; an estimated 50 million infections per year occur across approximately 100 countries, with potential for further spread (Fig. 1). 1 Central to the emergence of dengue as a public health problem has been the dispersal of efficient mosquito vectors across much of the tropical and subtropical world. The primary vector, the urban-adapted Aedes aegypti mosquito, has become widely distributed across tropical and subtropical latitudes. It emerged from Africa during the slave trade in the 15th through 19th centuries, spread into Asia through commercial exchanges in the 18th and 19th centuries, and has spread globally with the advent of increased travel and trade in the past 50 years. 2 In addition, the geographic range of a secondary vector, A. albopictus, has dramatically expanded in recent years. 3 Globalization of trade, in particular the trade of tires from used vehicles, is thought to explain the dispersal of eggs and immature forms of these arboviral vectors into new territories. 4 Endemicity has also been facilitated by rapid urbanization in Asia and Latin America, resulting in increased population density with an abundance of vectorbreeding sites within crowded urban communities and the areas surrounding them. Dengue infections in Africa remain largely unquantified, but recent outbreaks suggest that substantial parts of the continent may be at risk for increasing dengue transmission. More surveillance is required to assess the true burden of disease (see the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org). Vector control, through chemical or biologic targeting of mosquitoes and removal of their breeding sites, is the mainstay of dengue prevention, but this approach has failed to stop disease transmission in almost all countries where dengue is endemic. Antigenic diversity of the dengue virus is important, since the lack of long-term cross-immunity among the four virus types allows for multiple sequential infections. Thus, the spread of dengue illustrates how global trade (and the transport of the mosquito vectors), increasing travel within and between countries (and the movement of viremic people), urban crowding (which is conducive to multiple infections from an infected mosquito), and ineffective vector-control strategies have supported a pandemic in the modern era. With the increasingly global spread of dengue, practicing physicians in temperate North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan are

Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus with homology to Dengue virus (DENV), has become a public health emergency. By characterizing memory lymphocytes from ZIKV-infected patients, we dissected ZIKV-specific and DENV-cross-reactive immune responses. Antibodies to nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) were largely ZIKV-specific and were used to develop a serological diagnostic tool. In contrast, antibodies against E protein domain I/II (EDI/II) were cross-reactive and, although poorly neutralizing, potently enhanced ZIKV and DENV infection in vitro and lethally enhanced DENVdisease in mice. Memory Tcells against NS1 or E proteins were poorly cross-reactive, even in donors preexposed to DENV. The most potent neutralizing antibodies were ZIKV-specific and targeted EDIII or quaternary epitopes on infectious virus. An EDIII-specific antibody protected mice from lethal ZIKV infection, illustrating the potential for antibody-based therapy.A fter its introduction into Brazil in 2015, Zika virus (ZIKV) has spread rapidly, and in February 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (1-3). The main route of ZIKV infection is through bites by Aedes mosquitos, but the virus may also be sexually (4) and vertically transmitted (5). Although most of the ZIKV infections are asymptomatic or cause only mild symptoms, there is evidence that ZIKV infection can lead to neurological complications, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults (6) and congenital birth defects, including microcephaly in the developing fetus (5,7,8), likely through its ability to infect human neural progenitor cells (9).Whereas flavivirus envelope (E) proteins mediate fusion and are the main target of neutralizing antibodies, the nonstructural protein 1 (NS1) is secreted by infected cells and is involved in immune evasion and pathogenesis (10). Two recent studies showed a high level of structural similarity between the E protein of ZIKV and that of other flaviviruses-such as dengue virus (DENV), yellow fever virus (YFV), and West Nile virus (WNV)-but also revealed distinct features that may be related to the ZIKV neurotropism (11,12). Similarly, the structural analysis of ZIKV NS1 revealed conserved features with NS1 of other flaviviruses, although with different electrostatic characteristics (13).A phenomenon that is characteristic of certain flaviviruses is the disease-enhancing activity of cross-reactive antibodies elicited by previous infections by heterologous viruses, termed antibodydependent enhancement (ADE). In the case of DENV, for which four serotypes are known, there is epidemiological evidence that a primary infection protects from reinfection with the same serotype but represents a risk factor for the development of severe disease upon reinfection with a different serotype (14). The exacerbated disease is triggered by E-and prM-specific antibodies that fail to neutralize the incoming virus but instead enhance its capture by Fc receptor-expressing (FcR + ) cells, leading to enhanced vi...

Summary Antibodies protect against homologous Dengue virus (DENV) infection but can precipitate severe dengue by promoting heterotypic virus entry via Fcγ receptors (FcγR). We immortalized memory B cells from individuals after primary or secondary infection and analyzed anti-DENV monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) thus generated. MAbs to envelope (E) protein domain III (DIII) were either serotype specific or cross-reactive and potently neutralized DENV infection. DI/DII- or viral membrane protein prM-reactive mAbs neutralized poorly and showed broad cross-reactivity with the four DENV serotypes. All mAbs enhanced infection at subneutralizing concentrations. Three mAbs targeting distinct epitopes on the four DENV serotypes and engineered to prevent FcγR binding did not enhance infection and neutralized DENV in vitro and in vivo as postexposure therapy in a mouse model of lethal DENV infection. Our findings reveal an unexpected degree of cross-reactivity in human antibodies against DENV and illustrate the potential for an antibody-based therapy to control severe dengue.

Dengue is a rapidly emerging, mosquito-borne viral infection, with an estimated 400 million infections occurring annually. To gain insight into dengue immunity, we characterized 145 human monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and identified a previously unknown epitope, the envelope dimer epitope (EDE), that bridges two envelope protein subunits that make up the 90 repeating dimers on the mature virion. The mAbs to EDE were broadly reactive across the dengue serocomplex and fully neutralized virus produced in either insect cells or primary human cells, with 50% neutralization in the low picomolar range. Our results provide a path to a subunit vaccine against dengue virus and have implications for the design and monitoring of future vaccine trials in which the induction of antibody to the EDE should be prioritized.