New insights into how the Zika virus causes microcephaly
Since 2016 thousands of children across South America have been born with microcephaly, which causes abnormally small heads, after their mothers became infected with the Zika virus during pregnancy. The overlap between Zika cases in pregnant women and an increase in babies born with microcephaly strongly suggested that the virus targets stem cells in the developing human brain, but why and how has remained a mystery. Today's study is the first to associate MSI1 with microcephaly and the Zika virus. Dr Fanni Gergely from the University o f Cambridge said: "The development of a healthy human brain is an incredibly complex process that relies on stem cells and the coordinated actions of many genes. We've shown for the first time this interaction between Zika and MSI1 -- with MSI1 getting exploited by the virus for its own destructive life cycle, turning MSI1 into the enemy within. We hope that in the future this discovery could lead to ways of generating potential Zika...