Institute for Immunology and Informatics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Rhode Island, Providence.
Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester.
J Infect Dis. 2018 Oct 5;218(10):1675-1685. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiy360.
Follicular helper T cells (TFH) are specialized CD4 T cells required for B-cell help and antibody production.
Given the postulated role of immune activation in dengue disease, we measured the expansion and activation of TFH in the circulation (peripheral TFH [pTFH]) collected from Thai children with laboratory-confirmed acute dengue virus (DENV) infection.
We found significant expansion and activation of pTFH subsets during acute infection with the highest frequencies of activated pTFH (PD1hi pTFH and PD1+CD38+ pTFH) detected during the critical phase of illness. Numbers of activated pTFH were higher in patients with secondary compared with primary infections and in patients with more severe disease. We also found a positive correlation between the frequencies of activated pTFH and the frequencies of plasmablasts.
To our knowledge, this is the first ex vivo analysis of pTFH activation during acute DENV infection. Overall, our study supports the model that pTFH contribute to disease evolution during the critical stage of illness.
滤泡辅助 T 细胞（TFH）是辅助 B 细胞和产生抗体所必需的特异性 CD4 T 细胞。
鉴于免疫激活在登革热疾病中的推测作用，我们测量了从泰国确诊患有登革热病毒（DENV）急性感染的儿童中收集的循环中 TFH 的扩增和激活（外周 TFH [pTFH]）。
我们发现 pTFH 亚群在急性感染期间显著扩增和激活，在疾病的关键阶段检测到最高频率的活化 pTFH（PD1hi pTFH 和 PD1+CD38+ pTFH）。与初次感染相比，二次感染患者和病情较重的患者中活化的 pTFH 数量更高。我们还发现活化的 pTFH 频率与浆母细胞频率之间存在正相关。
据我们所知，这是首次在急性 DENV 感染期间对 pTFH 活化进行的体外分析。总体而言，我们的研究支持 pTFH 在疾病关键阶段有助于疾病演变的模型。
