WIKIPEDIA, CDC/CYNTHIA GOLDSMITHThe brains and genital tracts of adult monkeys experimentally infected with Zika harbor the virus, according to a study published yesterday (October 3) in Nature Medicine. Even after the virus is no longer detectable in the animals’ blood, it persists in semen, saliva, lymph nodes, and the genital tract, the authors, led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, reported.
“It’s interesting to realize that during an infection the virus could be getting into the brains of adults who are otherwise healthy,” David O’Connor, a pathologist at the University of Wisconsin who did not participate in the study, told The Verge. “It’s going to take a significant amount of additional work to unravel what that really means.”
In August, researchers reported that Zika virus infected neural progenitors in the adult mouse brain. In this latest study on monkeys, cerebellar granule cells appeared to have the highest viral RNA load.
The monkeys mounted innate and adaptive immune responses to combat Zika virus and eliminate it from the blood, the research team found. Yet the virus still stuck around in other body fluids. Case reports in humans ...
