They used lab-grown human stem cells and exposed them to the original Zika virus strain found in Uganda that is nearly a replica of the current strain spread in the outbreak countries.
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The researchers are now growing in the laboratory what they called “mini-brains” composed of the stem cells to see how the virus may affect development over a longer period of time.
Researchers also found that infected cells pump out more virus. Numerous infected cells died, and others showed disruption that could limit their ability to divide and flourish.
“The frequency was so high”, Karin Nielsen, one of the study’s co-authors and a pediatric infectious disease at the University of California, Los Angeles, said of the percentage of women with Zika who experienced complications.
Tang H, Hammack C, Ogden SC, et al. With the accumulating evidence on Zika virus, the World Health Organization solicits the authorities of the subject to come up with an advice for travelers bound for Latin America countries and to women themselves who live in affected areas. He added that even if there is not a flawless link between the defects and Zika, the results add weight to the hypothesis and serve as “additional evidence suggesting an association between Zika virus and negative obstetrical outcomes, including birth defects and fetal demise”.
Referring to the findings of the study as Zika Virus Congenital Syndrome, Nielson said that microcephaly could also be one of the many birth abnormalities which have been found till now in link with the mosquito-borne virus.
There have been more than 4,800 confirmed and suspected cases of babies born with small brains – microcephaly – in Brazil.
But he stressed that his study does not prove that Zika causes microcephaly, nor that it works by that route. The stems cells can result in cell death or disrupt cell growth, the study found.
Since the first news of a Zika outbreak emerged a year ago, scientists have been working in overdrive to further understand the little-studied disease.
There have been no reported cases of Zika from mosquito bites in Missouri.
And the findings strongly support the idea that Zika, a once-obscure virus believed to cause little more than a headache and a rash, can be a killer. Other viruses are known to cause the abnormality, and genetic and environmental factors haven’t been ruled out.
“This virus can do a lot of damage”, Florida State University virologist Hengli Tang, a lead author of the study, released in a statement.
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A Missouri man who caught the Zika virus while traveling in Haiti marks the state’s first case, health officials said Friday.
