Zika virus infects developing nerve cells

The virus readily infected the neural stem cells, neuroscientists Hongjun Song and Guo-li Ming, virologist Hengli Tang, and their colleagues report today in Cell Stem Cell. Three days after the virus was applied, 85% of the cells in the culture dishes were infected. In contrast, when the virus was applied to cultures of fetal kidney cells, embryonic stem cells, and undifferentiated iPS cells, it infected fewer than 10% of the cells by day 3. Immature neurons derived from the neural progenitor cells were also less susceptible to the virus; 3 days after receiving a dose of the virus, fewer than 20% of those cells were infected.

The researchers noticed that the infected progenitor cells were not killed right away. Instead, the virus “hijacked the cells,” using the cellular machinery to replicate themselves, Song says. That helped the virus to spread quickly through the cell population, he says.  His team also reports that infected cells grew more slowly and had interrupted cell division cycles, which could also contribute to microcephaly.