Zika Virus Encoding Nonglycosylated Envelope Protein Is Attenuated and Defective in Neuroinvasion.

ABSTRACT: Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-transmitted flavivirus responsible for sporadic outbreaks of mild and febrile illness in Africa and Asia, reemerged in the last decade causing serious human diseases, including microcephaly, congenital malformations, and Guillain-Barré syndrome. Although genomic and phylogenetic analyses suggest that genetic evolution may have led to the enhanced virulence of ZIKV, experimental evidence supporting the role of specific genetic changes in virulence is currently lacking. One sequence motif, VNDT, containing an N-linked glycosylation site in the envelope (E) protein, is polymorphic; it is absent in many of the African isolates but present in all isolates from the recent outbreaks. In the present study, we investigated the roles of this sequence motif and glycosyla

SUBMITTER: Annamalai AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5686755 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature