A barrier has been put in the way of the Zika virus
Scientists have found out how to protect the embryo from the Zika virus
Hydroxychloroquine, one of the oldest medicines for malaria, protects the embryo in the womb from the penetration of Zika virus particles into it and the development of microcephaly, according to an article published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (Cao et al., Inhibition of autophagy limits vertical transmission of Zika virus in pregnant mice).
"This medicine is already being used today to suppress malaria in the body of pregnant women. We believe that it should also be checked to see if it can be used to reduce the risk of Zika virus entering the embryo from the mother's placenta, while reducing the likelihood of microcephaly," says Indira Mysorekar from Washington University in St. Louis (USA).
This virus is spread by mosquitoes, and infection with Zika fever leads to the development of symptoms similar to fever, scabies and joint pain. According to current WHO statistics, about four out of five infected adults do not experience serious ailments, and in general, this fever rarely leads to the death of the patient.
On the other hand, as observations of patients in Brazil show, women who have had Zika fever during pregnancy often give birth to children with serious developmental defects – microcephaly and other deformities of the skull and skeleton. For this reason, the authorities of El Salvador urged women to postpone pregnancy for two years until doctors cope with the virus.
At the beginning of March last year, neurophysiologists from the United States stated that the reason for the development of microcephaly in a child when pregnant women are infected with the Zika virus is that particles of this pathogen penetrate well into stem cells, "billets" of future nervous tissue, and cause their mass death. In total, more than two thousand children born in Brazil and other countries of the New World have been affected by the Zika virus over the past two years.
Misorekar and her colleagues found out how to protect an unborn child from the development of microcephaly and other severe disorders in the development of the nervous system by studying how the virus manages to penetrate the placenta and into mouse embryos.
As scientists explain, the placenta, along with the barrier between the brain and the rest of the body, is one of the most impregnable barriers to infection – its cells pass through themselves only nutrients, oxygen and maternal hormones, and destroy all foreign bodies trying to cross the "border".
Initially, Misorekar and her colleagues thought that the Zika virus was somehow hiding from their attention, posing as some "harmless" part of the blood. Guided by this idea, the scientists decided to increase the "vigilance" of the placenta by using drugs that stimulate one of the lines of its internal defense system – autophagy of infected cells.
To the great surprise of biologists, the opposite happened – the virus not only did not disappear from the placenta, but began to penetrate its cells noticeably more actively and multiply inside them. In other words, the Zika virus has learned to use a protective reaction for its own spread and penetration where viruses usually cannot get.
This discovery prompted scientists to think that substances that suppress this reaction, which include hydroxychloroquine and many other antimalarial drugs, can be used to protect the embryo from infection with the Zika virus.
Human placental cells (blue) infected with Zika virus (green) after exposure to hydroxychloroquine (left).
The drug prevented the growth of the virus, unlike the autophagy-inducing rapamycin, which accelerated the reproduction of the virus (right).
A picture from the press release of Washington University in St. Louis Malaria drug protects fetuses from Zika infection - VM.
As further experiments on mice showed, the addition of such drugs to their diet really protected the embryos from the appearance of deformities and deformities associated with the reproduction of the Zika virus in their cells. It is not yet clear how long-term use of antimalarial drugs is safe for the mother's body, but scientists suggest that such treatment is better than its complete absence.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru 11.07.2017