Brief Insights into Zika-Microcephaly Mechanism

Abstract

After recent reports attesting a straight correlation between Zika infection and brain disorders in new-borns, research questions now focus on establishing causality and the mechanisms underlying it. Studies involving monolayer cultures, murine and human brain tissue slices and the cerebral organoid system have provided important information regarding neuronal damage, but the precise mechanisms underlying neuronal cell tropism and cell damage have not been elucidated. Herein, we discuss the possibility that Zika virus proteins enter the nucleus by a brief search for nuclear signal localization and for potential nucleosome binding motifs using a bioinformatics approach and point to other questions that should be the focus of research aiming to understand Zika-virus associated cell-damage.