Fig. 4

Nutritional status alters dengue virus (DENV) infection. a Six-week-old female C57BL/6 J mice were fed for 8–10 weeks on a control (healthy weight), high-fat (obese), or low-protein (protein-energy malnutrition, PEM) diet and then treated with 1 mg of antibody to block interferon receptor signaling (IFNAR blocking antibody). The next day, mice were infected with DENV2 Puo-218. b Percent weight loss throughout the study following infection. c Viremia following infection as determined by plaque assay in Vero cells. The dotted line represents the limit of detection (2.1 Log₁₀ PFU/mL); all points below this line represent samples with no plaques, which we gave an arbitrary value of half of the limit of detection (1.8 Log₁₀ PFU/mL). d Levels of platelets 7 days post-infection. Values are means ± SD from groups of 7–19 animals combined from 2 to 3 independent biological replicates, except for the pre-infection platelet levels, which were measured only once. Statistical comparisons were made to the healthy weight group using a repeated measures mixed-effects model analysis with Dunnett’s correction. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01