The Seroprevalence of Dengue Virus Infection and Its Association With Iron (Fe) Level in Pregnant Women in Guangzhou, China.

Jiong Wang,Tao Liu,Wenjun Ma,Limei Sun,Hanwei Chen,Guanhao He,He Zhou,Jianxiong Hu,Guimin Chen,Bo Zhang,Jiufeng Sun,Jianpeng Xiao,Yufeng Ye,Xiaomei Dong

doi:10.3389/fmed.2021.759728

Abstract

Dengue fever is regarded as the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral disease in humans. However, information of dengue virus (DENV) infection in pregnant women and the influence factors remain unclear. In this study, we extracted information of 2,076 pregnant women from the Prenatal Environment and Offspring Health (PEOH) birth cohort conducted since 2016 in Guangzhou, China. Peripheral blood and clean midstream urine samples of participants were collected during their hospitalization for childbirth. Indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies of DENV in serum samples, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was applied to determine the Fe concentrations in the urine samples, which were then adjusted for by urine creatinine and transformed by natural logarithm (ln-Fe). The seroprevalence of DENV IgG antibody in all included participants was 2.22% (46/2,076). We observed higher seroprevalence of IgG antibody in women aged ≥35 years (2.9%), education ≤ 12 years (2.5%), yearly income per capita <100,000 yuan (2.4%), no use of air-conditioner (2.4%), no use of mosquito coils (2.3%), and no exercise during pregnancy (4.1%). A U-shaped relationship was found between ln-Fe concentration and the risk of positive IgG antibody. Compared with women with ln-Fe concentration of 2.0–2.9 μg/g creatinine, slightly higher risks of positive IgG antibody were found among women with ≤2.0 (RR = 4.16, 95% CI: 0.78, 19.91), 3.0–3.9 (RR = 1.93, 95% CI: 0.65, 7.08), 4.0–4.9 (RR = 2.19, 95% CI: 0.65, 8.51), and ≥5.0 μg/g creatinine of ln-Fe (RR = 2.42, 95% CI: 0.46, 11.33). Our findings suggested that the seroprevalence of dengue IgG antibody in pregnant women was comparable to the general population in Guangzhou, China. The risk of DENV infection may be associated with maternal demographic characteristics and behaviors. Both maternal low and high Fe concentrations may be positively associated with the risk of DENV infection.

Highlights

Dengue is an arthropod-borne infectious disease caused by dengue virus (DENV) infection and transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes [1]
We aimed to investigate the seroprevalence of DENV infection in pregnant women, and to estimate the associations of iron exposure levels with DENV infection risk
After dividing the lnFe concentrations into groups and compared with the second group (2.0–2.9 μg/g creatinine), the adjusted relative risks of immunoglobulin G (IgG) positive in the first (≤2.0 μg/g creatinine,), third (3.0–3.9 μg/g creatinine), fourth (4.0–4.9 μg/g creatinine) and fifth (≥5.0 μg/g creatinine) groups were 4.16, 1.93, 2.19, and 2.42, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Dengue is an arthropod-borne infectious disease caused by dengue virus (DENV) infection and transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes [1]. It is regarded as the fastest spreading mosquitoborne viral disease, and the global incidence has increased 30 times in the past half century [2]. Dengue fever has become a vector-borne disease that needs to be controlled in priority in China. It is worth noting that pregnant woman is a susceptible group in dengue-endemic areas. After infection of DENV, a higher risk of severe dengue fever was observed in pregnant women than in other groups of people [10]. Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease, many studies have reported vertical transmission from mother to neonate [15,16,17]

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