Infection with Zika virus in pregnancy can lead to neurological disorders, fetal abnormalities and fetal death. Until now, how the virus manages to cross the placenta, which nurtures the developing fetus and forms a strong barrier against microbes and chemicals that could harm the fetus, has not been clear. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine with collaborators at Pennsylvania State University report in Nature Communications a strategy Zika virus uses to covertly spread in placental cells, raising little alarm in the immune system.
"The Zika virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, triggered an epidemic in the Americas that began in 2015 and by 2018 had reached as many as 30 million cases," said co-senior author Dr. Indira Mysorekar, E.I. Wagner Endowed, M.D., Chair Internal Medicine II, chief of basic and translational research and professor of medicine - infectious diseases at Baylor. "Understanding how Zika virus spreads through the human placenta and reaches the fetus is critical to prevent or control this devastating condition."
The researchers discovered that Zika virus builds underground tunnels, a series of tiny tubes called tunneling nanotubes, that facilitate the transfer of viral particles to neighboring uninfected cells.
