Study finds Zika infects neural cells related to skull formation

LONDON, (Reuters) - The Zika virus causing an epidemic in Brazil and spreading through the Americas can infect and alter cells in the human nervous system that are crucial for formation of bones and cartilage in the skull, a study found yesterday.

The research, published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, may help explain why babies born to mothers who have had the virus can have smaller-thanaverage skulls and disproportionate facial features.

Zika has already been shown to attack foetal brain cells known as neural progenitor cells - a type of stem cell that gives rise to various kinds of brain cells.

The death of these cells is what disrupts brain development and leads to microcephaly, the severe birth defect seen in babies whose mothers were infected with Zika during pregnancy.

American scientists who conducted this latest study by infecting human cells with Zika in the lab, found the virus can infect another type of cell known as cranial neural crest cells which give rise to skull bones and cartilage - and cause them to secrete signalling molecules that alter their function.

In the lab, the increased levels of these molecules were enough to induce premature differentiation, migration, and death of human neural progenitor cells, the researchers said.