Mechanism of dengue virus entry into cells
How dengue virus enters cells of our immune system: a 3D projection of a cell expressing on its surface DC-SIGN (stained in blue with antibodies) that have captured many dengue viruses (in green or green combined with red) and internalized dengue viruses (shown only in red). Dengue fever, an infectious tropical disease caused by a mosquito-borne virus, afflicts millions of people each year, causing fever, headache, muscle and joint pains and a characteristic skin rash. In some people the disease progresses to a severe, often fatal, form known as dengue hemorrhagic fever. Despite its heavy toll, the prevention and clinical treatment of dengue infection has been a "dramatic failure in public health compared to other infectious diseases like HIV," said Ping Liu of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.