A large longitudinal study shows that the cross-protective antibodies of dengue fever and Zika virus last longer than expected｜《Science·Translational Medicine》

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It unexpectedly showed that antibodies produced by dengue fever and Zika virus infection can prevent these two viruses and maintain Stable for many years, rather than declining rapidly as previously thought
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Cross-protective antibodies also slowly decrease after secondary infections.
This discovery overturns the established knowledge of dengue fever immunity
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These results can change scientists' understanding of the natural immunity of dengue fever and Zika virus, which may provide information for future research on vaccine efficacy and efforts to predict and control outbreaks
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Dengue fever and Zika virus are members of the same flavivirus family, so patients who recover from dengue virus infection will develop cross-protective antibodies that can neutralize dengue and Zika virus
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However, previous studies have shown that these antibodies can only last for about 2 years and will drop to levels that will actually worsen future dengue virus infections
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The scientists also hypothesized that the initial Zika virus infection can prevent dengue fever, because the incidence of dengue fever has declined after the Zika virus epidemic in 2015
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To test these ideas, Leah Katzelnick and colleagues tracked Nicaraguan community and hospital child cohorts (4189 in total) antibody responses to primary and secondary dengue and Zika virus infections
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After the initial dengue virus infection, cross-protective antibodies did not decrease within a few years, but unexpectedly remained stable for up to 11 years
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Obviously, the model predicts that these antibodies have an extremely long half-life of 130,000 years in the community cohort, but the antibodies are gradually decreasing in children with secondary dengue virus infection
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In addition, the team observed that cross-protective antibodies were equally stable in children who were first infected with Zika virus
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However, after the initial dengue virus infection, different children have different amounts of cross-protective antibodies, which indicates that the number of antibodies, not the decrease in antibodies, determines the risk of dengue infection in the future
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