The cellular immune response plays an important role in protecting against dengue virus in the mouse encephalitis model.

For several years, researchers have known that the generation of neutralizing antibodies is a prerequisite for attaining adequate protection against dengue virus. Nevertheless, the cellular immune response is the principal arm of the adaptive immune system against non-cytopathic viruses such as dengue, as once the virus enters into the cell it is necessary to destroy it to eliminate the virus. To define the role of the cellular immune response in the protection against dengue, we selected the mouse encephalitis model. Mice were immunized with a single dose of infective dengue 2 virus and different markers of both branches of the induced adaptive immunity were measured. Animals elicited a broad antibody response against the four dengue virus serotypes, but neutralizing activity was only detected against the homologous serotype. On the other hand, the splenocytes of the infected animals strongly proliferated after in vitro stimulation with the homologous virus, and specifically the CD8 T-cell subset was responsible for the secretion of the cytokine IFN-gamma. Finally, to define the role of T cells in in vivo protection, groups of animals were inoculated with the depleting monoclonal antibodies anti-CD4 or anti-CD8. Only depletion with anti-CD8 decreased to 50% the level of protection reached in the non-depleted mice. The present work constitutes the first report defining the role of the cellular immune response in protection against dengue virus in the mouse model.