Serum angiopoietin-2 and soluble VEGF receptor 2 are surrogate markers for plasma leakage in patients with acute dengue virus infection

Abstract

Background: Endothelial cell dysfunction is believed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of plasma leakage in patients with acute dengue virus (DENV) infection. Several factors, produced by activated endothelial cells, have been associated with plasma leakage or severe disease in patients with infectious diseases.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate which of these markers could serve as a surrogate marker for the occurrence of plasma leakage in patients with acute DENV infection.

Study design: A case-control study was performed in patients with acute DENV infection in Santos, Brazil. Plasma leakage was detected with X-ray and/or ultrasound examination at admission. Serum levels of soluble endoglin, endothelin-1, angiopoietin-2, VEGF, soluble VEGFR-2, MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 were determined using commercially available ELISAs.

Results: Increased levels of angiopoietin-2, endothelin-1 and MMP-2 and decreased levels of soluble VEGFR-2 were significantly associated with the occurrence of plasma leakage. An unsupervised cluster analysis confirmed that angiopoietin-2 and soluble VEGFR-2 were strongly associated with clinical apparent vascular leakage.

Conclusion: Angiopoietin-2 and soluble VEGFR-2 can serve as surrogate markers for the occurrence of plasma leakage in patients with acute DENV infection.

Keywords: Angiopoietin-2; Dengue virus; Plasma leakage; Soluble VEGFR-2; Vascular permeability.