Highlights

  • A widespread epidemic of Zika virus infections was found in Central and South America recently

  • Zika virus may be packaged as a cargo for the placental exosome pathway at the trophoblast endoplasmic reticulum, which is closely associated with the “secretory autophagy” process (Chahar et al, 2015; Carneiro and Travassos, 2016)

  • Secretory autophagy may facilitate Zika virus transfer across the placental barrier, and regulations to the equilibrium between degradative autophagy and secretory autophagy may influence the incidence of microcephaly

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

A widespread epidemic of Zika virus (an emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus) infections was found in Central and South America recently. One possibility is that the Zika virus can penetrate through the placental barrier. A recent study indicated that the viral genome could be detected in the amniotic fluid, which confirms that the virus could penetration through the placental barrier (Calvet et al, 2016). The complete genome of Zika virus can be recovered from the fetal brain, which confirms the tropism of Zika virus for neural tissues (Mlakar et al, 2016). Direct evidences of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) confirmed the presence of Zika virus RNA in mutiple mouse trophoblast cells, such as glycogen trophoblasts, mononuclear trophoblasts, spongio-trophoblasts, and syncytiotrophoblasts. Negative staining of the infected fetal brain tissue showed 42–54 nm spherical virus particles (Mlakar et al, 2016). The hypothesis that the virus could penetration through the placental barrier has been confirmed

SECRETORY AUTOPHAGY MAY MEDIATE ZIKA VIRUS TRANSFER
AUTOPHAGY INHIBITORS AND THE CLINICAL EFFECTS
AUTOPHAGY STIMULATORS AND THE CLINICAL EFFECTS
Pathways involved in Clinical effects
Enhancing autophagy and phagosome maturation
POTENTIAL COMBINATIONS WITH OTHER DRUGS

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