"A Single Mutation In Zika Led To Devastating Effects" - Anna Azvolinsky
One mutation in the Zika virus is responsible for catastrophic consequences in its hosts. A sequence change resulting in one amino acid substitution can convert an ancestral Zika strain that causes only mild microcephaly into one that causes severe fetal microcephaly in mouse embryos, according to a study in the journal Science. One outstanding question is how these results might reflect what happens during the course of human infection. “I would like to see these types of experiments repeated in a pregnancy mouse model to see whether the mutant virus can find its way to the NPCs of the fetus and also in primate models,” said Jean Lim, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who was not involved in the study.
-Jean Lim, PhD, Assistant Professor, Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai