Guillain–Barré syndrome and Zika virus outbreaks

Abstract

The recent ZIKV outbreaks have triggered the occurrence of a myriad of neurological manifestations likely associated to this arbovirosis, in special GBS and its variants.

Transcriptional Changes during Naturally Acquired Zika Virus Infection Render Dendritic Cells Highly Conducive to Viral Replication

“…Infection with Zika virus causes a transient febrile illness that is typically associated with a skin rash, generalized fatigue and disseminated joint pain (Calvet et al, 2016). In the context of the recent Zika virus epidemic in Asia, Polynesia and the Americas, more complex and severe Zika-associated disease manifestations became apparent, including neonatal birth defects affecting the central nervous system (Cunha et al, 2017; Panchaud et al, 2016), Guillain-Barre syndrome (Nascimento and da Silva, 2017) or profound Thrombocytopenia (Boyer Chammard et al, 2017) in adults. Yet, to a large extent, the mechanisms by which ZIKV causes disease, and the immune responses that humans can generate to restrict ZIKV are unclear.…”

Asian Zika virus isolate significantly changes the transcriptional profile and alternative RNA splicing events in a neuroblastoma cell line

“…ZIKV infection during pregnancy has been linked many developmental and neurological abnormalities [12][13][14][15], and in adults Guillain-Barré syndrome is a consequence of ZIKV infection [16][17][18][19]. Although RNA-seq studies showed transcriptional dysregulation of genes associated with cell-cycle, DNA repair, immune response, cell death and microcephaly [21,22,25,26,65,66], these transcriptional changes were less dramatic between the African and Asian ZIKV strains [67].…”

“…To date there are no antivirals or a licensed vaccine to prevent ZIKV infection. Therefore, to develop effective therapies and thus limit the dreadful symptoms associated with ZIKV infection it is critical to understand viral-host interactions and ZIKV pathogenesis.The striking feature of the recent ZIKV outbreak in the America's was the correlation between intrauterine ZIKV infection and the devastating consequences to fetal brain development resulting in microcephaly, cortical malformations and intracranial calcifications [12][13][14][15] and the increased number of cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults [16][17][18][19]. As a first step to elucidating ZIKVdirected mechanisms resulting in neurological anomalies in vitro, ex vivo, primary cells and in vivo mouse infection studies were undertaken.…”

Acute-onset chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy after Zika virus infection

“…A specific clinical phenotype of ZIKV-related GBS has not emerged from these reports, but based on the NCS most patients have been classified as the demyelinating variant (acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP)) 3. Many other complications of the central and peripheral nervous system have been reported as well, including myelitis, encephalitis and acute transient polyneuritis 4. The pathogenesis of these ZIKV associated disorders is unknown, but direct infection and immune-mediated injury of nerves may both play a role.…”