Figure 1.

Rupatadine influences vascular function in vitro and in a dengue mouse model. (a) Human Umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were stained for ZO-1 (red) and nuclei (DAPI, blue) incubated for 1 hour in the absence or presence of rupatadine (500 ng/ml) before adding DMSO or acute dengue serum (diluted 1:3 with media). Example of a stain from 1 of n = 6, experiments done in triplicate. ZO-1 expression was quantified as previously described with cumulative data from n = 6 experiments. (b) Trans-endothelial electrical resistance (TEER) of HUVEC cells was measured after incubation with acute dengue sera in the presence or absence of a PAFR antagonist (1-(N,N-Dimethylcarbamoyl)-4-ethynyl-3-(3-fluoro-4-((1H-2-methylimidazo[4,5-c]pyridin-1-yl)methyl)benzoyl)-indole, HCl) and rupatadine 500 ng/ml for 1 hour. n = 6 experiments done in triplicate. (c) Hematocrit values and platelet counts were obtained by automatic hematology analysis, 24 h after C57BL/6 infection with DENV-2 (1 × 10⁶ pfu, intraperitoneal) and 23.5 h after treatment with rupatadine at either 0.8 mg/kg or 3 mg/kg doses (or saline control injection). The data represent experiments on 5 mice in each group. Bars represent the mean and SEM *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001.