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Women who have already been infected with the dengue virus may be more exposed to the fetus and placenta if they are subsequently to be infected with the Zika virus, researchers at the Department of Microbiology of the Faculty of Medicine said. Icahn at Mount Sinai.
This study is the first to report a possible mechanism for improving the progression of Zika virus during pregnancy in an animal model.
The results of the study, "Immunity to the Dengue Virus Increases the Damage Caused by the Zika Virus During Pregnancy" were published in the February issue of Immunity, a journal published by Cell Press.
Zika virus outbreaks were first badociated with conbad malformations, including microcephaly, in which the baby is born with an unusually small head and brain, in Brazil, in 2015, where the dengue virus, a virus closely related to the Zika virus, is endemic. The research team led by Jean Lim, PhD, badociate professor of microbiology and co-director of multidisciplinary training in microbiology at the School of Biomedical Sciences of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has transferred dengue virus-specific antibodies to mice prior to infection. with the Zika virus during pregnancy. The presence of these antibodies in mice significantly increased placental damage, fetal growth, and fetal resorption. Human placenta tissues infected with Zika also exhibited increased replication in the presence of dengue antibodies.
"Our data demonstrate that antibodies generated by a previous dengue virus infection can increase the severity of Zika virus infection during pregnancy," Dr. Lim said. "Our research could explain the high rate of microcephaly and conbad malformations observed during the recent Zika outbreak in South America."
Other leading authors of the study include Florian Krammer, PhD, badociate professor of microbiology, and Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, PhD, director of the Institute of Global Health and Emerging Pathogens, Icahn School of Medicine from Mount Sinai.
Source: Mount Sinai Health System
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