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Copyright © 2008 Chen et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. Molecular profiling of T-helper immune genes during dengue virus infection Jincheng Chen,1 Mary Mah Lee Ng,1 and Justin Jang Hann Chu  11Department of Microbiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, 5 Science Drive 2, National University of Singapore, 117597, Singapore Corresponding author.Jincheng Chen: g0800060/at/nus.edu.sg; Mary Mah Lee Ng: micngml/at/nus.edu.sg; Justin Jang Hann Chu: miccjh/at/nus.edu.sg Received November 20, 2008; Accepted December 31, 2008. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. | ||||
Abstract In this study, we provide a comprehensive molecular profiling of the involvement of T- helper (Th) genes during dengue virus infection of different cell types. The Th gene profiles of three human cell types (monocytes, T-cells and hepatocytes) were analyzed simultaneously via array-based RT-PCR upon infection with dengue virus. Differential regulation of 41 Th genes was identified and of which 20 of those genes may contribute to immuno-pathogenesis of dengue virus infection by regulating inflammation, thrombocytopenia and vascular permeability. Among the strongly up-regulated genes were the RANTES, CC-CKR3, IRF4, CLEC2C, IL-6 and TLR6, which are potent inducer of inflammation and vascular permeability. Profiling genes obtained from this study may serve as potential biomarkers and the modulation of Th immune responses during dengue virus infection has important implications in disease outcome. | ||||
