These findings may correlate with disrupted brain development, but direct evidence for a link between Zika virus and microcephaly is more likely to come from clinical studies, the researchers said.
Advertisement
In this photo taken on Monday, Feb. 29, 2016, provided by Florida State University, Professor Hengli Tang confers with his graduate student and co-author Sarah Ogden about the next steps in their Zika virus research in Tang¿s lab at FSU, in Tallahassee, Fla.
While bolstering the connection between Zika virus and brain defects in babies, one of the researchers cautioned that it doesn’t establish a conclusive link.
The scientists found that the Zika virus infected at random by attacking the cells forming the brain’s cortext that is, found at the thin outer layer of folded gray matter.
Health authorities project that more than 600,000 people will be infected with the Zika virus this year in Colombia.
The evidence gets stronger every day that the Zika virus causes microcephaly.
In the presentation of Zhexing Wen of Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, the virus could have “invaded the stem cells that were in the process of dividing while travelling to areas that were first to develop, such as the brain structure”.
A pregnant woman sits on a bed after being released from the hospital where she was treated for the Zika virus in Cucuta, Colombia, last month.
In the study, the researchers derived the stem cells, called cortical neural precursors, from human induced pluripotent stem cells and found that the Zika virus easily infected these cells. Microcephaly refers to an abnormally small head, which can result in abnormal growth of the brain and a range of syndromes.
But the correlation wasn’t scientifically confirmed and the mechanisms by which the virus causes this condition weren’t known until Friday, when two studies demonstrating and explaining the link were published. But unlike some of those viruses, there is no vaccine to prevent Zika or medicine to treat the infection.
“Our results clearly show that Zika can directly infect human neuronal progenitor cells in vitro (…) with high efficiency”, the study concludes.
The Atlanta-based agency is warning pregnant women to avoid more than 30 areas where the Zika virus is actively spreading.
It has since become the hardest hit country, with an estimated 1.5 million cases of active Zika transmission and 641 confirmed cases of microcephaly.
Zika virus has recently emerged as a public health concern, but it was first discovered in Uganda in the 1940s.
Advertisement
It does appear the Zika virus causes severe birth defects.
