Similarities and differences between the ‘cytokine storms’ in acute dengue and COVID-19

Abstract

Severe pneumonia and multiorgan dysfunction in COVID-19 and dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) are two diseases that can associate with an altered immune response to the infecting virus. To determine the similarities and differences in the cytokine and chemokine responses in these two infections, we compared responses in patients with varying severity of COVID-19 and acute dengue at different time points of illness. During early disease, patients who proceeded to develop COVID-19 severe pneumonia (SP) and DHF had significantly higher levels of IL-6, IL-10 and MIP3α than those who developed mild illness. The lowest levels of IFNγ in early illness were seen in those who succumbed to their illness due to COVID-19. Levels of serum IL-10 (p = 0.0001), IL-6 (p = 0.002), MIP-3α (p = 0.02) and CD40-L levels (p = 0.002) significantly increased from 5 to 9 day of illness to 10–21 day of illness in patients with moderate-to-severe COVID-19, but not in those with mild illness. In contrast, these cytokine/chemokine levels remained unchanged in those with DHF or dengue fever (DF) during febrile and critical phases. Although IL-10 levels were significantly higher in COVID-19 patients with SP, patients with DHF had 25-fold higher levels, whereas IL-6 levels were 11-fold higher in those with COVID-19 SP. IL-10 and other cytokines were evaluated in a larger cohort of patients during early illness (≤ 4 days) who proceeded to develop DF (n = 71) or DHF (n = 64). Of the cytokines evaluated, IL-10 was significantly higher (p < 0.0001) in those who went on to develop DHF compared to DF. Low IFNγ response to the SARS-CoV2 and high levels of immunosuppressive IL-10 in both COVID-19 and dengue during early illness are indicators of an altered antiviral response potentially contributing to disease severity.

Identification of COVID-19 and Dengue Host Factor Interaction Networks Based on Integrative Bioinformatics Analyses

“…As reported by M Juffrie ( 43 ), this process is associated with plasma leakage and shock caused by increased permeability in dengue patients. Previous research has proposed that IL-6 contributes more to the disease pathogenesis of COVID-19 than does DHF, and serum IL-6 levels are higher in severe pneumonia patients with COVID-19 ( 44 ).…”

Cytokines storm in COVID-19 with dengue co-infection in pregnancy: Fatal maternal and fetal outcome

“…In contrast, IL-6 levels are higher in patient with severe pneumonia compared to DHF. IL-10 levels of more than 34.3 pg/mL, the sensitivity and specificity of developing DHF was 71.9% and 70% [1] .…”

“…Rather than COVID-19, dengue has more acute course as plasma leakage last 24-48 hours and enter the critical phase during 4-7 days of illness [1] , [16] . In a study comparing cytokines and chemokines in both COVID-19 and dengue, IL-10 are significantly higher in patient with severe dengue (DHF) compared to COVID-19.…”

“…Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic in throughout the world and specifically in Indonesia as of 2020. It has resulted 850,000 deaths worldwide within a period of 8 months [1] . Indonesia ranked as the one of the highest COVID-19 “ hot-spots ” in Asia.…”

A New Scientific Paradigm of Reverse Vaccinology: An Annotation

“…Reverse Vaccinology is having, and will have, tremendous applications and implications in the development of protective vaccines for recent Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) [20][21][22]. In fact, bioinformatics approaches were employed by researchers to design and introduce a novel multi-epitope vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviraus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) responsible for the pandemic COVID-19.…”