Zika Kills Cells Key to Fetal Brain Development, Study Says
Source: New York Times
The Zika virus destroys cells that give rise to the brain cortex in the developing fetus, scientists reported on Friday.
The finding, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, may help explain how the virus might cause microcephaly, or unusually small heads, in infants whose mothers are infected during pregnancy.
Its an important advance and a step forward to clearly demonstrate that the virus kills brain cells, said Dr. Mark R. Schleiss, the director of pediatric infectious diseases and immunology at the University of Minnesota Medical School, who was not involved in the study.
But other experts cautioned that it was conducted with cells cultured in a laboratory and may not reflect the viruss effects in humans.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/05/health/zika-virus-microcephaly-fetus-birth-defects.html?_r=0
The last part is key, of course. Such results often don't repeat in other environments. Still...
muriel_volestrangler
(101,149 posts)Another indication it is the virus most likely to cause the problems, not the other suspects offered up.
HuckleB
(35,773 posts)Eugene
(61,592 posts)Source: Reuters
New range of serious fetal abnormalities linked to Zika: study
NEW YORK | BY BILL BERKROT
Fetuses in 29 percent of pregnant women with Zika virus infection were found to have a range of severe abnormalities, according to preliminary results from a small study that raised new concerns about the potential link between Zika and serious birth defects.
The list of "grave outcomes" found in the study of pregnant women in Rio de Janeiro, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Friday, included fetal death, calcification of the brain, placental insufficiency with low to no amniotic fluid, fetal growth restriction and central nervous system damage, including potential blindness.
"These were women infected in the first and second trimester of pregnancy," Dr. Karin Nielsen, lead author of the study, said in a telephone interview.
"We also saw problems in the last trimester, which was surprising to us," added Nielsen, noting two cases of fetal death very late in pregnancies in which there was no sign of brain malformation in earlier ultrasound tests.
"We have found a strong link between Zika and adverse pregnancy outcomes, which haven't been documented before," said Nielsen, professor of clinical pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "Even if the fetus isn't affected, the virus appears to damage the placenta, which can lead to fetal death."
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/health-zika-fetus-idUSL2N16C29N
Source: NBC News
Study Finds Zika Damages Babies at All Stages of Pregnancy
by MAGGIE FOX
The babies of women infected with Zika virus while they are pregnant can suffer the effects at any stage of gestation, researchers reported Friday in a troubling look at how Zika affects unborn children.
Two babies died just before they should have been born after their mothers became infected, the international team found. They also found the virus causes a range of birth defects beyond microcephaly.
They suggest a name for these effects: Zika virus congenital syndrome. Babies have been born with a range of brain and eye defects and some have also been abnormally small.
The findings, together with other studies, support what most experts already believe: that Zika is causing an epidemic of birth defects.
Earlier Friday, a different team reported that tests in lab dishes show that Zika goes straight into developing brain cells and turns them into virus factories before killing them.
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Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/zika-virus-outbreak/study-finds-zika-damages-babies-all-stages-pregnancy-n532086