Reports of the Zika virus in Brazil hit mainstream media in 2015 and followed with the breaking news of the virus’ arrival to the US in 2016. Images of children born with smaller than average heads sent a panic through the United States, but we didn’t know very much about the disease at the time. While Zika reports have largely disappeared from television screens and news updates, the impacts are still a threat for pregnant women in mosquito breeding grounds around the American gulf coast.
“If we can prevent infections when women are pregnant, we will have done a great service in protecting the brain during development,” Kristina Waldorf, an obstetrician and scientist at UW Medicine, said. She works with pregnant patients who are at high risk after exposure to infections.
Researchers at the UW Medical Center and Seattle Children’s Hospital continue to explore the impact of Zika on unborn children. A recent study by Waldorf, Lakshmi Rajagopal, and Michael Gale Jr. about the impact of Zika on fetal brain development shows that the way doctors diagnose Zika exposure in infants is far from sufficient.
Microcephaly, a smaller than average head, is commonly diagnosed with ultrasound during pregnancy and it is an indication that the fetus has been exposed to Zika virus. However, the recently published study shows that the absence of microcephaly does not eliminate the possibility of Zika exposure.
The study used pigtail macaques, a breed of monkeys that have a similar pregnancy to humans, to study the deeper implications of Zika on brain development.
“The portion of the brain called the hippocampus where neural stem cells stay and and are active were severely impacted,” Waldorf explained.
The hippocampus is a portion of the brain that plays an important role in information consolidation from short-term to long-term. Infants with a Zika-impaired hippocampus are thought to have memory and learning disorders and also more subtle neurological and cognitive defects.
“Zika is very good at suppressing innate immune responses, which is the process by which our cells block virus replication,” Gale, an immunologist at the UW, said. He performed the virology analysis in the pigtail macaques fetal brain tissue.
The researchers propose that Zika can spread from cell-to-cell along neural progenitor cells, which are stem cells that support fetal brain growth during pregnancy. While it is unknown why Zika impacts neural progenitor cells, the prevailing hypothesis is that those cells lack the essential innate immune response to viruses.
“Our goal is to be able to link gene signature and actions with disease outcomes and start to identify key genes that are linked with Zika virus infection,” Gale said.
Zika virus is a member of the flaviviridae that includes other mosquito borne viruses such as West Nile Virus and Dengue Virus. Gale hopes that by identifying genes that Zika virus impacts, treatment for members of the same virus family can be determined. Dengue virus alone kills 24,000 people yearly.
“It can be devastating from a social standpoint,” Waldorf said “If we take care of pregnancies to prevent Zika virus infections during pregnancy, we cannot only create healthy families, but that is the basis for society.”
West Nile Virus was introduced in New York City in 1999, but it spread to Washington state by 2006. Likewise, while Zika is isolated near Florida, weather changes, seasons, and movement might allow for it to spread nationally. Waldorf notes that with diminishing press for Zika, funding for symptoms and treatment of the virus have decreased too.
“Zika is not going to go away,” Gale said. “It is here and it will keep expanding.”
Luckily, vaccines are being developed to prevent Zika and have entered phase two with human trials.
“It is not enough to test Zika virus vaccine in non-pregnant people,” Waldorf explains. “Pregnant women need to be a part of this and they need have the benefit of those vaccines as well.”
The researchers hope that with their study, Zika will continue to gain the awareness it needs to promote treatment and prevention of the virus for pregnant women and unborn children. Viruses have a pattern of emergence-reemergence and researchers warn that we need to get prepared as Zika continues to grow.
Reach reporter Vidhi Singh at science@dailyuw.com.
Twitter: @vidhisvida
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