A
team of Indian researchers, steered by the All India Institute of Medical
Sciences (AIIMS) here, has proposed a plausible mechanism that m
According
to these researchers, the Zika virus interferes with retinoic acid (a
metabolite of vitamin A) signalling by introducing its genome sequence repeats
(called the Retinoic Acid Response Elements or simply RARE consensus repeats)
into the developing brain cells of the fetus.
Big
India
News is
that the mechanism by which Zika virus (ZIKV) infection may cause microcephaly
in the fetuses of infected women, the researchers suggested in a study
published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
“The
rationale of the mechanism of ZIKV-Microcephaly relationship is based on
sequence homology between ZIKV genome and the response element of an early
neural tube developmental marker (retinoic acid) in human DNA” said Himanshu
Singh from AIIMS and his colleagues.
The
team of scientists was headed by Ashutosh Kumar and Muneeb Faiq from AIIMS.
Other
researchers at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Centre for Biomedical Research, New Delhi, and
National Brain Research Centre, Haryana, also contributed to the study.
Zika
is a severely pathogenic virus causing many brain malformations including
microcephaly in neonates.
Owing
to the observation that this virus causes many neurological problems and severe
birth defects, WHO declared this outbreak as the “Public Health Emergency of
International Concern”, AIIMS said in a statement.
Since
this virus has the ability to get transferred from pregnant women to their
fetuses, it has been observed to cause acute brain malformations and
microcephaly.
Many
countries have advised their citizens to delay pregnancy till the mechanism by
which this viruses causes microcephaly is deciphered.
ZIKV | India News
Understanding
the mechanism of ZIKV mediated microcephaly is an immediate need of the hour
that could help in preventing the spread of this epidemic and blocking the
disease causing abilities of this virus.
For
the study, the researchers screened genomic sequences of already reported
virulent ZIKV strains (including those linked to microcephaly) and other
viruses available in the US National Institute of Health genetic sequence
database (GenBank) for the RARE consensus.
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