Longitudinal proteomic profiling of the inflammatory response in dengue patients

by Fadel Muhammad Garishah, Collins K. Boahen, Nadira Vadaq, Setyo G. Pramudo, Rahajeng N. Tunjungputri, Silvita Fitri Riswari, Ronald P. van Rij, Bachti Alisjahbana, Muhammad Hussein Gasem, André J. A. M. van der Ven, Quirijn de Mast

The immunopathogenesis of dengue virus (DENV) infection remains incompletely understood. To increase our understanding of inflammatory response in non-severe dengue, we assessed longitudinal changes in the inflammatory proteome in patients with an acute DENV infection.

Using a multiplex proximity extension assay (PEA), we measured relative levels of 368 inflammatory markers in plasma samples from hospitalized patients with non-severe DENV infection in the acute (n = 43) and convalescence (n = 35) phase of the infection and samples of healthy controls (n = 10).

We identified 203 upregulated and 39 downregulated proteins in acute versus convalescent plasma samples. The upregulated proteins had a strong representation of interferon (IFN) and IFN-inducible effector proteins, cytokines (e.g. IL-10, IL-33) and cytokine receptors, chemokines, pro-apoptotic proteins (e.g. granzymes) and endothelial markers. A number of differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) have not been reported in previous studies. Functional network analysis highlighted a central role for IFNγ, IL-10, IL-33 and chemokines. We identified different novel associations between inflammatory proteins and circulating concentrations of the endothelial glycocalyx disruption surrogate marker syndecan-1.Conclusion: This unbiased proteome analysis provides a comprehensive insight in the inflammatory response in DENV infection and its association with glycocalyx disruption.