Innovare Biomarkers Laboratory, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil.
Medical Genetics Department, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2019 Sep 20;9(1):13606. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-49796-5.
Zika virus (ZIKV) has emerged as one of the most medically relevant viral infections of the past decades; the devastating effects of this virus over the developing brain are a major matter of concern during pregnancy. Although the connection with congenital malformations are well documented, the mechanisms by which ZIKV reach the central nervous system (CNS) and the causes of impaired cortical growth in affected fetuses need to be better addressed. We performed a non-invasive, metabolomics-based screening of saliva from infants with congenital Zika syndrome (CZS), born from mothers that were infected with ZIKV during pregnancy. We were able to identify three biomarkers that suggest that this population suffered from an important inflammatory process; with the detection of mediators associated with glial activation, we propose that microcephaly is a product of immune response to the virus, as well as excitotoxicity mechanisms, which remain ongoing even after birth.
寨卡病毒（ZIKV）已成为过去几十年中最具医学相关性的病毒感染之一；该病毒对发育中大脑的破坏性影响是怀孕期间的主要关注点。尽管该病毒与先天畸形之间的联系已有充分记录，但寨卡病毒进入中枢神经系统（CNS）的机制以及受影响胎儿皮质生长受损的原因仍需进一步阐明。我们对来自患有先天性寨卡综合征（CZS）的婴儿的唾液进行了非侵入性、基于代谢组学的筛选，这些婴儿的母亲在怀孕期间感染了寨卡病毒。我们能够鉴定出三种生物标志物，表明该人群患有严重的炎症过程；通过检测与神经胶质细胞激活相关的介质，我们提出小头畸形是对病毒的免疫反应以及兴奋性毒性机制的产物，即使在出生后这些机制仍在持续。
