RESUMO
Dengue is a human disease wich may be fatal in its hemorrhagic form. How dengue virus and hostspecified factors underlie virulence and pathogenesis is poorly undrestood. An inmunological disorder is thougth to be involved in dengue physilogical symptoms. Whether the immune response is deleterious or beneficial to the host remains a matther of debate. In this review, we summarized developments in research on viral pathogenesis in the context of apoptosis triggered by dengue virus infection. Apoptosis, an active process of cell destruction, is one of the importand consequences of dengue virus infection in vitro and in vivo. Dengue virus replication induces apoptosis in mouse neurons and human hepatocytes. The ability to activate this genetically programmed cell death pathway is dependent on both viral and cellular determinants