LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Autoimmune and dengue fever
Viroj Wiwanitkit* * Wiwanitkit House, Bangkhae, Bangkok, Thailand 10160. E-mail address: wviroj@yahoo.com
Hainan Medical University, China
Dear Editor,
The recent publication on autoimmune features in dengue fever by Jardim et al. is very interesting.1 Dengue fever should be suspected in patients with hematological disor ders and autoimmune features in endemic regions.1 Indeed, there is no doubt that autoimmunity plays important roles in the pathogenesis of dengue. Wiwanitkit showed that the immune mimicry process is the main pathological process leading to thrombocytopenia in dengue.2 However, the pro cess is transient and normally does not persist to show overt autoimmune features. In this case, there are many features of autoimmunity, but the main question is whether these characteristics are due to dengue fever or to a previous occult disorder in the patients. It should also be noted that dengue fever and other viral infections can be a trigger factor that aggravate the overt appearance of systemic lupus erythrematosus.3
Conflict of interest
The author declares to have no conflict of interest.
Received 28 February 2012
Accepted 12 March 2012
Available online 7 September 2012
- 1. Jardim DL, Tsukumo DM, Angerami RN, Carvalho Filho MA, Saad MJ. Autoimmune features caused by dengue fever: a case report. Braz J Infect Dis. 2012;16:92-5.
- 2. Wiwanitkit V. Weak binding affinity of immunoglobin G, an explanation for the immune mimicking theory in pathophysiologic findings in the recovery phase of dengue. Nanomedicine. 2005;1:239-40.
- 3. Rajadhyaksha A, Mehra S. Dengue fever evolving into systemic lupus erythematosus and lupus nephritis: a case report. Lupus. 2012 [Epub ahead of print]
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
17 Oct 2012 -
Date of issue
Oct 2012
