title: Comparison of dengue virus antigens in sera and peripheral blood mononuclear cells from dengue infected patients.
abstract: The presence of dengue virus antigens in acute sera and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from dengue infected patients were determined by a biotin-streptavidin enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (BS-ELISA). The frequency of the antigens detected in PBMC was higher than that in sera (53.8% vs 18.9%). In comparison with sera, the detection rate in PBMC was greater than six times: 7 cases were positive only in sera whereas 44 cases were positive only in PBMC, p < 0.001. The presence of the antigens in the sera did not depend on the severity of the disease, i.e. dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever (grades I and II) or dengue shock syndrome (grades III and IV). In contrast, the presence of the antigens in PBMC increased from 36.8% to 100% when the infection was more severe. The dengue virus antigens could be detected in the samples collected between day 2 and day 7 after onset of the disease with the highest rate of detection (68.8%) in PBMC collected on day 4. The data suggest the use of PBMC with access to the appropriate acute-phase specimen for detection of dengue virus antigens.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kittigul
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Meethien
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sujirarat
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kittigul
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vasanavat
mesh_terms: D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D003715:Dengue / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology*; D003716:Dengue Virus / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D009000:Monocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D015995:Prevalence; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral