Abstract
Over the years, viral infections have caused severe illness in humans. Zika Virus (ZIKV) is a flavivirus transmitted by mosquito vectors that leads to notable neurological impairment, whose most dramatic impact is the Congenital ZIKV Syndrome (CZS). ZIKV targets neuronal precursor cells leading to apoptosis and further impairment of neuronal development, causing microcephaly, lissencephaly, ventriculomegaly, and calcifications. Several regulators of biological processes are involved in CZS development, and in this context, microRNAs (miRNAs) seem to have a fundamental role. miRNAs are important regulators of protein translation, as they form the RISC silencing complex and interact with complementary mRNA target sequences to further post-transcriptional repression. In this context, little is known about their participation in the pathogenesis of viral infections. In this review, we discuss how miRNAs could relate to ZIKV and other flavivirus infections.
Highlights
Neuroimmune Interactions Laboratory, Department of Immunology, University of São Paulo, Laboratory of Neuroimmunology of Arboviruses, Scientific Platform Pasteur-USP (SPPU), University of São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-020, Brazil
The mice were infected subcutaneously with 103 focus forming units (FFU) at embryonic day (E) E6.5 and E7.5 and pups were analyzed at E13.5 and E15.5 showing fetal resorption, intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), pallor, presence of necrotic tissue, and Zika Virus (ZIKV) in pups’ placenta and brain tissue analyses [36]
Abnormal oxygen transport within the placenta has been observed as a result of uterine vasculitis and placental villous damage caused by ZIKV [44]. These results clearly showed that ZIKV crosses the placenta and has a tropism for the fetal brain, leading to important tissue damage
Summary
ZIKV has been proven to cause neurological impairment by several studies using human samples and different experimental models. The histological and cellular analysis showed astrogliosis in the subarachnoid space related to viral particles present in neurons Following studies corroborated these findings and demonstrated the presence of ZIKV in the amniotic fluid [32], placenta [33], cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) [34], and retinas [35] of babies with microcephaly. The mice were infected subcutaneously with 103 focus forming units (FFU) at embryonic day (E) E6.5 and E7.5 and pups were analyzed at E13.5 and E15.5 showing fetal resorption, IUGR, pallor, presence of necrotic tissue, and ZIKV in pups’ placenta and brain tissue analyses [36] This provides evidence for the complex translational regulation performed by miRNAs, which are important in different scenarios as regulatory molecules for several biological processes, making them biomarkers for detection and progression of diseases, as well as a target for therapeutic intervention [75]
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