In a small proportion of cases, the disease may lead to miscarriage and perinatal death. A network of more than 30 Brazilian researchers set out to find the causes of these problems with the support of FAPESP and obtained important results after half a decade of hard work. A paper describing their findings has been published in the journal Science Signaling.
"We show for the first time what happens in the fetal brain affected by congenital Zika syndrome [CZS]," Helder Nakaya, who is the last author of the paper, told Agência FAPESP. Nakaya is a bioinformatics specialist, a professor at the University of São Paulo's School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCF-USP), and a senior scientist at the Center for Research on Inflammatory Diseases (CRID), which is one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) funded by FAPESP.
The researchers compared brain tissue from babies who died from CZS with tissue samples from babies that died from other causes.
The parents who gave us permission to collect these samples at a time of such grief were exceptionally altruistic. They were motivated by the knowledge that this donation helped science and that science could help others in future." Helder Nakaya, last author of the paper
The comparison revealed several anomalies in the brains of the babies with CZS. "Analysis of the brain genome [all DNA], transcriptome [RNAs transcribed from genes] and proteome [proteins produced using messenger RNAs] showed a number of significant molecular alterations in genes related to neuron development, the possible dysregulation of neurotransmitters such as glutamate and even alterations in different types of collagen," Nakaya said.
The researchers integrated transcriptomics and proteomics data to identify microRNAs (miRNAs) that do not encode proteins but regulate gene expression and may be linked to…The researchers integrated transcriptomics and proteomics data to identify microRNAs (miRNAs) that do not encode proteins but regulate gene expression and may be linked to…
The researchers integrated transcriptomics and proteomics data to identify microRNAs (miRNAs) that do not encode proteins but regulate gene expression and may be linked to…