“It is very telling that the cells that form the cortex are potentially susceptible to the virus”, said Ming.
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They believe Zika virus specifically infects the cells that form the fetus’s cortex – the brain’s outer layer.
“As far as I know, this might be the only experimental evidence that either supports or does not support the link”, said Hengli Tang, a professor of biological science at Florida State and the study’s lead author.
The results “make a very strong case for Zika virus being the cause of all these pregnancy outcomes that are not very good”, Nielsen-Saines says.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a case of Zika virus in a Missouri man who had traveled from Haiti.
Still, the researchers who made this latest discovery caution that their finding doesn’t prove a definitive causal link between Zika and microcephaly.
The two other babies born to women in the study had cranial defects that are being investigated and could not so far be linked to Zika, Rodriguez-Morales said. It does appear the Zika virus causes severe birth defects. Health department spokeswoman Rachael Kagan said officials delayed announcing the confirmed case to the public because the case posed no public health threat.
Zika infection has been linked to numerous cases in Brazil of the birth defect microcephaly in babies, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems.
It is not clear whether the cells could defend themselves against the Zika virus in any way, which means researchers don’t know whether or how the virus is being cleared from the cells, the researchers said. It took place in a controlled environment, with lab-grown stem cells.
Florida received 500 additional antibody tests for Zika this week, increasing its ability to test more than 4,600 people for active Zika virus and 1,500 people for the antibody.
The WHO’s Emergency Committee will meet next week to review “evolving information” and its recommendations on travel and trade in what is thought to be high season for transmission of the mosquito-borne virus in the southern hemisphere, it said on Friday.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University brought neural stem cells to FSU where Tang and his graduate students infected them with the virus and began monitoring them.
She told the BBC News web site: “Neural progenitor cells are specifically exposed to the Zika virus”. What it does show, Tang said in a conference call with reporters, is that if the virus is in the brain, “this virus can do a lot of damage”.
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The researchers hope that the findings of their research can help scientists develop treatment for the disease.
