A Research conducted in mice revealed the devastating effect of Zika virus in a type of brain cells that exist not only in fetuses but also in adults.
Adult brain cells that are in charge of learning and memory can be destroyed by this virus, informed the study published in the “Cell Stem Cell Journal” in the United States.
It showed that Zika can penetrate the adult brain and cause great damage,
said Sujan Shrestha, one of the study leaders and professor at the Institute for Allergy and Immunology in La Jolla.
The researchers focused on cells destined to become neurons, which are the equivalent of stem cells to the brain. They were particularly susceptible to the virus, but only in two areas of the brain, one of them was the hippocampus. They pointed it out that the long-term effects are difficult to predict, since the models shown in mice are not necessarily the same for humans.
Shrestha stated that the sensitivity of these cells to the virus could explain the occurrence of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in some of the people who have been infected with Zika.