Scientists believe they found a critical piece of the puzzle about the possible link between the Zika virus and the birth defect microcephaly.
A new study published Friday offered a potential reason how Zika may cause microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with tiny heads and causes brain damage. The potential link threw health officials for a loop when the latest outbreak occurred last year, as no potential association between the two had ever been documented before.
Zika is mainly spread through mosquito bites and has been around since 1947. It causes mild illness, but has spread to nearly 50 countries and officials are worried about the link with microcephaly.
So scientists decided to look into how exactly Zika and microcephaly are associated. They found a strain of Zika that could infect human progenitor cells that can come from stem cells.
These cells can further release Zika particles into the body and affect cell growth, according to the study published Friday in Cell Stem Cell journal.
Researchers concluded that the Zika virus can target these cells.
“Our results fill a major gap in our knowledge about [Zika] biology and severs as an entry point to establish a mechanistic link between [Zika] and microcephaly,” the study said.
Scientists also were able to create a model for the impact of Zika on neural development.
The finding comes at a time when scientists are trying to pin down the link between Zika and microcephaly. Researchers strongly believe there is such a link, but haven’t been able to definitively confirm it.
