Project description:Zika virus was inoculated at mid gestation (day 50) in to either intra cerebrally, or interperotoneally and intra amniotic. Controls were mock injected and subject to similar surgical proceedures. Fetal tissue were obtained. Sampled fetal brains are from littermates and are not the fetus directly infected. After 28 days post infection.
Project description:Purpose: The goal of this study is to investigate the effect of Zika virus infection on neural stem cells Methods: RNA-Seq transcriptome analysis of neural stem cells infected with Zika virus compared to mock infected
Project description:Zika virus (ZIKV) infects fetal and adult human brains, and is associated with serious neurological complications including microcephaly and Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS). To date, no prophylactic or therapeutic treatment is available to prevent or treat ZIKV infection. Here, we performed a high content chemical screen using a library containing FDA-approved drugs or drug candidates. Two compounds, hippeastrine hydrobromide (HH) and amodiaquine dihydrochloride dihydrate (AQ), were discovered to inhibit ZIKV infection in human cortical neuron progenitor cells (hNPCs). HH was further validated to inhibit ZIKV infection and to rescue ZIKV-induced growth and differentiation defects in hNPCs and human fetal-like forebrain organoids. Finally, HH and AQ suppressed ZIKV infection in adult mouse brain in vivo. Strikingly, HH and AQ fully rescued the severe limb paralysis syndrome developed in ZIKV infected adult mice. This study identifies drug candidates for treatment of ZIKV infection and ZIKV-related neurological complications in fetal and adult patients.
Project description:Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emerging, mosquito-borne pathogen associated with a widespread 2015–2016 epidemic in the Western Hemisphere and a proven cause of microcephaly and other fetal brain defects in infants born to infected mothers. ZIKV infections have been also linked to other neurological illnesses in infected adults and children, including Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) and meningoencephalitis, but the viral pathophysiology behind those conditions remains poorly understood. Here we investigated ZIKV infectivity in neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells, both undifferentiated and following differentiation with retinoic acid. We perform RNA seq, and global trancriptome analysis to corroborate the effect of retinoic acid in SH-SY5Y cells. Then we analyze the virus infection in differentiated and undifferntiated cells. We found that multiple ZIKV strains, representing both the prototype African and contemporary Asian epidemic lineages, were able to replicate in SH-SY5Y cells. Differentiation with resultant expression of mature neuron markers increased infectivity in these cells, and the extent of infectivity correlated with degree of differentiation. Enhanced ZIKV infectivity in a neural cell line following differentiation may contribute to viral neuropathogenesis in the developing or mature central nervous system.
Project description:The re-emergence of Zika virus (ZIKV) in the Western Hemisphere has resulted in global public health crisis since 2015. ZIKV preferentially infects and targets human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) and causes fetal microcephaly upon maternal infection. hNPCs not only play critical roles during fetal brain development, but also persist in adult brain throughout life. Yet the mechanism of innate antiviral immunity in hNPCs remains largely unknown. Here, we show that ZIKV infection triggers the abundant production of virus-derived small interfering RNAs in hNPCs, but not in the more differentiated progenies or somatic cells. Ablation of key RNAi machinery components significantly enhances ZIKV replication in hNPCs. Furthermore, enoxacin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic that is known as an RNAi enhancer, exerts potent anti-ZIKV activity in hNPCs and other RNAi-competent cells. Strikingly, enoxacin treatment completely prevents ZIKV infection and circumvents ZIKV-induced microcephalic phenotypes in brain organoid models that recapitulate human fetal brain development. Our findings highlight the physiological importance of RNAi-mediated antiviral immunity during the early stage of human brain development, uncovering a novel strategy to combat human congenital viral infections through enhancing RNAi.
Project description:Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-transmitted positive-sense RNA virus in the family Flaviviridae. ZIKV infections are associated with neurodevelopmental deficiencies termed Congenital Zika Syndrome. ZIKV strains are grouped into three phylogenetic lineages: East African, West African, and Asian, which contains the American lineage. RNA virus genomes exist as genetically-related sequences. The heterogeneity of these viral populations is implicated in viral fitness, and genome diversity is correlated to virulence. This study examines genetic diversity of representative ZIKV strains from all lineages utilizing next generation sequencing (NGS). Inter-lineage diversity results indicate that ZIKV lineages differ broadly from each other; however, intra-lineage comparisons of American ZIKV strains isolated from human serum or placenta show differences in diversity when compared to ZIKVs from Asia and West Africa. This study describes the first comprehensive NGS analysis of all ZIKV lineages and posits that sub-consensus-level diversity may provide a framework for understanding ZIKV fitness during infection.
Project description:To better understand the critical drivers of Zika virus pathogenicity, we used microarray analysis to evaluate the host responses triggered by Zika virus infection in MRC-5 cells.
Project description:This paper shows that, whereas SOX2+ cells in HDB are highly susceptible to ZKV, SOX2+ primary GBM samples exhibit moderate to high resistance to infection. These datasets address the reasons for this difference, based on infection of primary patient GBM and human developing brain samples with mCherry Zika reporter virus, then FACS sorting the Zika-mCherry positive and negative fractions from each sample for bulk RNA-Sequencing. The primary finding of importance is that Zika resistant GBMs exhibit an immune signature reflecting high levels of infiltration by microglia which are present only in small numbers or absent altogether in human developing brain.