Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
Barão de Lucena Hospital, Recife, Brazil.
Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Basis Dis. 2024 Jun;1870(5):167097. doi: 10.1016/j.bbadis.2024.167097. Epub 2024 Feb 24.
Zika virus (ZIKV) infection was first associated with Central Nervous System (CNS) infections in Brazil in 2015, correlated with an increased number of newborns with microcephaly, which ended up characterizing the Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS). Here, we investigated the impact of ZIKV infection on the functionality of iPSC-derived astrocytes. Besides, we extrapolated our findings to a Brazilian cohort of 136 CZS children and validated our results using a mouse model. Interestingly, ZIKV infection in neuroprogenitor cells compromises cell migration and causes apoptosis but does not interfere in astrocyte generation. Moreover, infected astrocytes lost their ability to uptake glutamate while expressing more glutamate transporters and secreted higher levels of IL-6. Besides, infected astrocytes secreted factors that impaired neuronal synaptogenesis. Since these biological endophenotypes were already related to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), we extrapolated these results to a cohort of children, now 6-7 years old, and found seven children with ASD diagnosis (5.14 %). Additionally, mice infected by ZIKV revealed autistic-like behaviors, with a significant increase of IL-6 mRNA levels in the brain. Considering these evidence, we inferred that ZIKV infection during pregnancy might lead to synaptogenesis impairment and neuroinflammation, which could increase the risk for ASD.
寨卡病毒(ZIKV)感染于 2015 年在巴西首次与中枢神经系统(CNS)感染相关,与新生儿小头畸形的数量增加相关,最终将其特征化为先天性寨卡综合征(CZS)。在这里,我们研究了 ZIKV 感染对 iPSC 衍生的星形胶质细胞功能的影响。此外,我们将研究结果外推到 136 名巴西 CZS 儿童的队列中,并使用小鼠模型验证了我们的结果。有趣的是,神经祖细胞中的 ZIKV 感染会损害细胞迁移并导致细胞凋亡,但不会干扰星形胶质细胞的产生。此外,感染的星形胶质细胞丧失了摄取谷氨酸的能力,同时表达更多的谷氨酸转运体并分泌更高水平的 IL-6。此外,感染的星形胶质细胞分泌的因子会损害神经元突触发生。由于这些生物学表型已经与自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)相关,我们将这些结果外推到现在 6-7 岁的儿童队列中,发现了 7 名被诊断为 ASD 的儿童(5.14%)。此外,感染 ZIKV 的小鼠表现出类似自闭症的行为,大脑中的 IL-6 mRNA 水平显著增加。考虑到这些证据,我们推断怀孕期间 ZIKV 感染可能导致突触发生损伤和神经炎症,从而增加患 ASD 的风险。