In:

Medical Microbiology and Immunology

Authors:

Dennis Tappe · José Vicente Pérez‐Girón · Lorenzo Zammarchi · Jürgen Rissland · Davis F. Ferreira · Thomas Jaenisch · Sergio Gómez‐Medina · Stephan Günther · Alessandro Bartoloni · César Muñoz‐Fontela · Jonas Schmidt‐Chanasit

Abstract

Zika virus is an emerging mosquito-borne flavi- virus currently causing large epidemics in the Pacific Ocean region and Brazil. Clinically, Zika fever resembles dengue fever, but is less severe. Whereas the clinical syndrome and laboratory diagnostic procedures have been described, little attention was paid to the immunology of the disease and its possible use for clinical follow-up of patients. Here, we investigate the role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of Zika fever in travelers returning from Asia, the Pacific, and Bra- zil. Polyfunctional T cell activation (Th1, Th2, Th9, and Th17 response) was seen during the acute phase character- ized by respective cytokine level increases, followed by a decrease in the reconvalescent phase.

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