Brain damage from Zika infections

A report released recently shows in graphic detail the kind of damage Zika infections can do to the developing brain — damage that goes well beyond the devastating birth defect known as microcephaly, in which the baby’s head is smaller than normal.

The current Zika outbreak was first detected last year in Brazil, where the virus has been linked to more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly, which can cause severe developmental problems.

Prior research has shown the Zika virus attacks neural progenitor cells — a type of stem cell that develops into different types of nerve or brain cells.

The latest research, published in the journal Radiology, draws from imaging and autopsy findings linked with confirmed Zika infections done on 17 infants and foetuses cared for at the Instituto de Pesquisa, in Campina Grande in the state of Paraiba in northeastern Brazil, where the infection has been especially severe.

The study also included reports on 28 foetuses or newborns with brain anomalies whose mothers were suspected of having Zika during pregnancy.

Nearly all babies in each group had ventriculomegaly, a condition in which the ventricles, or fluid-filled spaces in the brain, are enlarged.

While most of the foetuses had at least one exam showing abnormally small head circumference, suggesting they had microcephaly, three of the foetuses with ventriculomegaly had normal head circumference, but severe ventriculomegaly.

Nearly all of the foetuses or babies in the confirmed Zika group and nearly 80% of those in the presumed Zika group also had abnormalities of the corpus callosum — a large bundle of nerves that facilitates communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

In all but one of the cases studied, the researchers found instances in which developing neurons did not travel to their proper destination in the brain. In many cases, the babies’ skulls seemed to have collapsed on themselves, with overlapping tissues and abnormal skin folds suggestive of a brain that had stopped growing.

“From an imaging standpoint, the abnormalities in the brain are very severe when compared to other congenital infections,” said study co-author Dr Deborah Levine of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a radiology professor at Harvard Medical School.