Microcephaly News and Research

RSS

Measuring head circumference (also known as occipito-frontal circumference) is a significant part of the proper evaluation of a child’s growth and development, as it represents a direct indication of head growth. Therefore deviations from normal head growth may reveal certain congenital or acquired problem.

Researchers unravel how Zika virus manipulates the human immune system

Macrophages are immune cells that are supposed to protect the body from infection by viruses and bacteria. Yet Zika virus preferentially infects these cells. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have now unraveled how the virus shuts down the genes that make macrophages function as immune cells.

11 Sep 2018

Researchers identify Zika virus proteins with potential to affect brain development

In healthy individuals, the Zika virus causes flu-like symptoms. If a pregnant woman becomes infected, the unborn child can suffer from severe brain abnormalities as a result of mechanisms that have not yet been explained.

4 Sep 2018

Researchers report how Zika proteins hijack host cells

Most people infected with Zika never show symptoms. But the virus sometimes causes severe disability -- from microcephaly in babies to weakness or partial paralysis in adults -- and there is no treatment.

28 Aug 2018

Long term effects of Zika virus exposure during pregnancy studied

Zika is a mosquito borne virus that can be dangerous in pregnant women as it can cause severe congenital malformations and damage to the baby. The extent of danger however is not known and a large study followed children who were exposed to this virus during their time within the womb.

7 Aug 2018

Unique experimental vaccine against Zika virus proves powerful in mice

A uniquely designed experimental vaccine against Zika virus has proven powerful in mice, new research has found.

6 Aug 2018

Scientists take a deep dive into differences between Zika and dengue virus

More than two years after reports of skyrocketing Zika rates surfaced worldwide, questions still loom about this complicated virus.

6 Jul 2018

Undetected Zika infections may be cause stillbirths and miscarriages

A collaborative study between six of the National Primate Research Centers shows pregnancy loss due to Zika A infections that don't cause women any symptoms may be a common but unrecognized cause of miscarriages and stillbirths.

2 Jul 2018

BWH researchers develop rapid Zika detection test using mobile health technologies

The Zika virus, which continues to cause microcephaly and other neurological complications in infants whose mothers were infected during pregnancy, remains a public health concern.

29 Jun 2018

Rhesus macaque model could be useful to test therapies for congenital Zika virus syndrome

Rhesus macaque monkeys infected in utero with Zika virus develop similar brain pathology to human infants, according to a report by researchers at the California National Primate Research Center and School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, published June 20 in Nature Communications.

21 Jun 2018

Zika Virus: What Does the Future Hold?

Following the Zika virus epidemic that swept across Brazil between 2015-2016, Dr. Julia Clarke and her team begun working to establish the long-term effects of Zika, and recently discovered that TNF-a inhibitors can be used to prevent microencephaly.

18 Jun 2018

Study finds body temperature as major barrier to potential dengue, Zika vaccine

A major route toward creating effective vaccines against dengue virus and Zika involves the E protein that covers the surface of each viral particle.

18 May 2018

Complex human brain may originate from fewer initial cells compared to mice and monkeys

The superior size and complexity of the human brain compared to other mammals may actually originate from fewer initial starting materials, new research has suggested.

4 May 2018

Zika virus can be used for treating aggressive human central nervous system tumors, shows study

A Brazilian study published April 26 in the journal Cancer Research shows for the first time in vivo that Zika virus can be used as a tool to treat aggressive human central nervous system (CNS) tumors.

27 Apr 2018

Researchers team up to improve life for children with microcephaly

Audrey Alves had just turned 2 when she first visited the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute Neuromotor Research Clinic a year ago. Unlike most toddlers her age, she struggled to sit, crawl, and communicate.

16 Mar 2018

Climate change spurs proliferation of disease-bearing insects, increases exposure to viral infections

Scientists at the Joint Research Centre, the European Commission's science and knowledge service, find that global warming has allowed disease-bearing insects to proliferate, increasing exposure to viral infections.

16 Mar 2018

Misconceptions about MMR vaccine found to influence usage of Zika vaccine

People's willingness to use a Zika vaccine when it's available will be influenced by how they weigh the risks associated with the disease and the vaccine, but also by their misconceptions about other vaccines, a new study has found.

15 Mar 2018

Scientists evaluate reliability of Zika virus diagnostics

Globally, Brazil has been the hardest hit by the current Zika outbreak. Almost all cases of Zika-associated malformations in newborns have been reported from this country

2 Mar 2018

Zika virus could be alternative for treatment of aggressive brain cancer

Zika virus, feared for causing microcephaly in babies whose mothers were infected during pregnancy by attacking the cells that will give rise to the fetus's cerebral cortex, could be an alternative for treatment of glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive kind of malignant brain tumor in adults.

21 Feb 2018

Tiny 'brains on chips' reveal mechanisms underlying brain's wrinkling process

Being born with a "tabula rasa" - a clean slate - in the case of the brain is something of a curse. Our brains are already wrinkled like walnuts by the time we are born. Babies born without these wrinkles - smooth brain syndrome - suffer from severe developmental deficiencies and their life expectancy is markedly reduced.

20 Feb 2018

Higher susceptibility of some babies to Zika virus has a genetic origin, study shows

Microcephaly, brain calcification, skeletal alterations, auditory and visual deficits - these are examples of the damage that can be caused by Zika virus in babies born to mothers infected during pregnancy.

2 Feb 2018