Neural stem cells attacked by Zika virus

Abstract

The current outbreak of Zika virus-associated diseases in South America and its threat to spread to other parts of the world has emerged as a global health emergency. Insights from cell and animal models to understand how Zika virus causes severe birth defects may lead to treatments and prevention of these diseases.

Figure 1

A mouse model of Zika virus (ZIKV) vertical transmission. ZIKV (blue dots) injected into the abdominal cavity of a pregnant mouse, crosses the fetal-placental and homes to the dorsal cortex of fetal brain (dashed line with arrowhead). The ZIKV infects radial glial cells (RGCs) located in the ventricular zone of the dorsal cortex and inhibits normal cell division. Together with reduced cell proliferation, decreased expression of genes related to cell cycle and increased immune activation through upregulation of IL-17a (see box), ZIKV-infected fetal brains develop abnormally and resemble microcephaly that is observed in humans.