Fig. 2: DENV engages TLR2/6 and CD14 to activate NF-κB and to establish infection.

a NF-κB activation in HEK-Blue™ hTLR2 cells (mock-) treated with PAM3CSK4 (PAM3, 25 ng/mL), DENV2 (MOG1000), UV-I DENV2 (MOG1000) or purified DENV2 (pDENV2) (MOG1000) for 24 h (n = 3 one-way ANOVA, Dunnett post hoc test, ***P < 0.001). OD630 values represent induction of NF-κB. b, c NF-κB activation in HEK-Blue™ hTLR2 cells pretreated for 2 h with b αTLR2 (n = 3, one-tailed paired t test, ***P < 0.001; ****P < 0.0001) or c αTLR1, αTLR6 and αCD14 (15 µg/mL) before exposure to PAM3 (25 ng/mL), PAM2CSK4 (PAM2, 1 ng/mL) or DENV2 (MOG1000) for 24 h (n = 3, one-way ANOVA, Dunnett post hoc test, *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001). d NF-κB activation in HEK-Blue™ hTLR2 pretreated for 1 h with endocytosis inhibitors pitstop (PS, 60 µM), ammonium chloride (NH4Cl, 50 mM) and wortmannin (W, 2 µM) prior to exposure to PAM3 (25 ng/mL), PAM2 (1 ng/mL) or DENV2 (MOG1000) for 24 h (n = 3, one-way ANOVA, Dunnett post hoc test, *P < 0.05). Percentages of DENV (E)—positive cells were determined by flow cytometry in e HEK-Blue™ hTLR2 cells (n = 5, one-way ANOVA, Dunnett post hoc test, *P < 0.05; ****P < 0.0001) or f monocytes in the context of PBMCs, in the presence or absence of TLR2 axis blockade after 24 and 48 h, respectively (n = 3, three donors and three different DENV2 preparations, one-way ANOVA, Dunnett post hoc test, ****P < 0.0001). Bars represent the mean ± SEM. CC (cellular control), PAM2, PAM3, and DENV2 as controls of their respective blocking/treatment conditions. N refers to the number of independent biological experiments unless otherwise specified. g Correlation of mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of CD14 expression on different monocyte subsets and DENV infection (NS3) in our patient’s cohort. Statistical differences were determined by Spearman correlation analysis. Source data are provided as a Source data file.