Why is congenital Zika syndrome asymmetrically distributed among human populations?

Jimena Barbeito-Andrés; Lavínia Schuler-Faccini; Patricia Pestana Garcez

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.2006592

Why is congenital Zika syndrome asymmetrically distributed among human populations?

PLoS Biol. 2018 Aug 24;16(8):e2006592. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2006592. eCollection 2018 Aug.

Authors

Jimena Barbeito-Andrés^{1

2}, Lavínia Schuler-Faccini^{3

4}, Patricia Pestana Garcez¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
² Institute for Studies in Neuroscience and Complex Systems Studies, ENyS, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
³ Departament of Genetics, Institute of Biosciences, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
⁴ Instituto Nacional de Genetica Medica Populacional, Medical Genetics Service, Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a health burden due to the severe neurological abnormalities that arise after congenital infection. Although multiple experimental studies have linked ZIKV with neural birth defects, the scientific community has not been able to fully explain why Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS) was only apparent after the virus entered the Americas and why these occurrences have an asymmetric geographic distribution. Here, we review the impact of ZIKV infection on human populations by exploring evolutionary changes in the virus' genome as well as examining the diverse genetic and environmental cofactors of the human hosts.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Americas
Female
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / virology
Zika Virus / metabolism
Zika Virus / pathogenicity
Zika Virus Infection / epidemiology*
Zika Virus Infection / virology

Grants and funding

FAPERJ (grant number 203.291/2017). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Brazilian Ministry of Health-DECIT (grant number CNPq grant 440763/2016-9). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. INAGEMP – National Institute of Population Medical Genetics (grant number CNPq 465549/2014-4). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.