Saxitoxin potentiates human neuronal cell death induced by Zika virus while sparing neural progenitors and astrocytes.

ABSTRACT: The Zika virus (ZIKV) epidemic declared in Brazil between 2015 and 2016 was associated with an increased prevalence of severe congenital malformations, including microcephaly. The distribution of microcephaly cases was not uniform across the country, with a disproportionately higher incidence in the Northeast region (NE). Our previous work demonstrated that saxitoxin (STX), a toxin present in the drinking water reservoirs of the NE, exacerbated the damaging effects of ZIKV on the developing brain. We hypothesized that the impact of STX might vary among different neural cell types. While ZIKV infection caused severe damages on astrocytes and neural stem cells (NSCs), the addition of STX did not exacerbate these effects. We observed that neurons subjected to STX exposure were more prone to a

SUBMITTER: Souza LRQ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11445263 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature