Abstract
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a flavivirus with teratogenic effects on fetal brain, but the spectrum of ZIKV-induced brain injury is unknown, particularly when ultrasound imaging is normal. In a pregnant pigtail macaque (Macaca nemestrina) model of ZIKV infection, we demonstrate that ZIKV-induced injury to fetal brain is substantial, even in the absence of microcephaly, and may be challenging to detect in a clinical setting. A common and subtle injury pattern was identified, including (i) periventricular T2-hyperintense foci and loss of fetal noncortical brain volume, (ii) injury to the ependymal epithelium with underlying gliosis and (iii) loss of late fetal neuronal progenitor cells in the subventricular zone (temporal cortex) and subgranular zone (dentate gyrus, hippocampus) with dysmorphic granule neuron patterning. Attenuation of fetal neurogenic output demonstrates potentially considerable teratogenic effects of congenital ZIKV infection even without microcephaly. Our findings suggest that all children exposed to ZIKV in utero should receive long-term monitoring for neurocognitive deficits, regardless of head size at birth.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge J. Hamanishi for technical assistance with preparation of the figures. We acknowledge V. Alishetti for technical assistance and G. Hess for technical advice related to the flow cytometry studies. We thank M. Diamond (Washington University) for the kind gift of antibodies (ZV-13, Supplementary Table 5). We also thank S. Rodriguez and I. Hansen in the New Mexico State University Biology Department for mosquito rearing. We thank C. Hughes and G. Gallardo for administrative assistance.
This work was primarily supported by generous private philanthropic gifts, mainly from five donors in Florida, who wish to remain anonymous. Further support was obtained from the University of Washington Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Seattle Children's Research Institute and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant no. R01AI100989 (L.R. and K.M.A.W.), AI083019 (M.G.), AI104002 (M.G.), AI100625 (R.S.B.), AI107731 (R.S.B.), R01NS092339 (R.F.H.), R01NS085081 (R.F.H.), R21OD023838 (B.R.N.), and the Keck Foundation (B.R.N.). The NIH training grants T32 HD007233 (principal investigator: L. Frenkel) and T32 AI07509 (principal investigator: L. Campbell) supported E.B. and J.V., respectively. A Perkins Coie Award for Discovery supported J.A.R. The NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (P51 OD010425) also supported this project. The authors thank the Allen Institute for Brain Science founders, P. Allen and J. Allen, for their vision, encouragement and support.
The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or other funders. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.
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K.M.A.W., B.R.N., J.E.S.-B., R.P.K., C.S., R.S.B., D.G.W., M.G. and L.R. designed the study. K.M.A.W., B.R.N., J.E.S.-B., R.P.K., C.S., R.P.K., B.A., S.M., J.T.-G., A.B., M.C., J.A.R., J.V., V.S.-U., E.B., J.A.S., J.L., M.A.D., K.J., D.G.W., J.T.M., K.A.H., J.O., G.M.G., W.L., C.E., W.M.D., C.G., E.C.D., M.R.F., L.K. and L.R. performed the experiments. K.M.A.W., B.R.N., J.E.S.-B., C.S., R.P.K., B.A., C.L.W., S.M., J.T.-G., A.B., M.K.D., D.W.W.S., J.A.R., J.V., J.L., X.G., M.A.D., J.A.S., K.J., R.S.B., R.D.H., R.F.G., W.B.D., R.H., L.R., R.F.H., M.G. and L.R. analyzed the data. K.M.A.W., B.R.N., J.E.S.-B., C.S., R.P.K., B.A., C.L.W., A.B., W.B.D., M.G. and L.R. drafted the manuscript. All authors reviewed the final draft of the manuscript.
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Adams Waldorf, K., Nelson, B., Stencel-Baerenwald, J. et al. Congenital Zika virus infection as a silent pathology with loss of neurogenic output in the fetal brain. Nat Med 24, 368–374 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4485
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.4485
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