Importantly, downstream analysis of the 15 populations identified as differentially abundant by CITRUS using manual gating, showed that except for classical MBCs, CD4+ classical monocytes (which were significantly reduced in DHF cases), and CD16+ NK cells, blood frequencies of all cell types were negligible among dengue-naive healthy controls compared to dengue-exposed study participants (Additional file 3: Fig. S2), confirming the expansion of these cellular compartments in response to DENV infections progressing to different disease outcomes. Here, CD4 is linked to dengue disease.