Higher Infection of Dengue Virus Serotype 2 in Human Monocytes of Patients with G6PD Deficiency

The prevalence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is high in Asia. An ex vivo study was conducted to elucidate the association of G6PD deficiency and dengue virus (DENV) infection when many Asian countries are hyper-endemic. Human monocytes from peripheral mononuclear cells collected from 12 G6PD-deficient patients and 24 age-matched controls were infected with one of two DENV serotype 2 (DENV-2) strains–the New Guinea C strain (from a case of dengue fever) or the 16681 strain (from a case of dengue hemorrhagic fever) with a multiplicity of infection of 0.1. The infectivity of DENV-2 in human monocytes was analyzed by flow cytometry. Experimental results indicated that the monocytes of G6PD-deficient patients exhibited a greater levels of infection with DENV-2 New Guinea C strain than did those in healthy controls [mean±SD:33.6%±3.5 (27.2%∼39.2%) vs 20.3%±6.2 (8.0%∼30.4%), P<0.01]. Similar observations were made of infection with the DENV-2 16681 strain [40.9%±3.9 (35.1%∼48.9%) vs 27.4%±7.1 (12.3%∼37.1%), P<0.01]. To our knowledge, this study demonstrates for the first time higher infection of human monocytes in G6PD patients with the dengue virus, which may be important in increasing epidemiological transmission and perhaps with the potential to develop more severe cases pathogenically.