Evidences support that dengue virus can impart broad-spectrum immunity against betacoronaviruses in dengue endemic regions.

Abstract

COVID-19 tended to be less aggressive in dengue endemic regions. Conversely, dengue cases plummeted in dengue endemic zones during the active years of the pandemic (2020-2021). We and others have demonstrated serological cross-reactivity between these two viruses of different families. We further demonstrated that COVID-19 serum samples that were cross-reactive in dengue virus (DV) serological tests, "cross-neutralized" all DV serotypes in Huh7 cells. Here we showed by co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging that severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-coronavirus (CoV)-2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike (S) protein subunit S1 and S2 monoclonal antibodies can indeed, bind to DV particles. Likewise, DV envelope antibodies (DV E Abs) showed high docking frequency with other human pathogenic beta-CoVs and murine hepatitis virus-1 (MHV-1). SARS-CoV-2 Ab didn't show docking or Co-IP with MHV-1 supporting poor cross-protection among CoVs. DV E Abs showed binding to MHV-1 (AFM, Co-IP, and immunofluorescence) and prepandemic dengue patients'serum samples even "cross-neutralized" MHV-1 plaques in cell culture. Furthermore, dengue serum samples showed marked inhibition potential in a surrogate virus-based competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, used for determining neutralizing Abs against SARS-CoV-2 S protein receptor-binding domain in COVID-19 serum samples. We therefore, provide multiple evidence as to why CoVs are epidemiologically less prevalent in highly dengue endemic regions globally.