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Life | Fri May 6, 2016 4:59pm EDT Related: HEALTH, BRAZIL
Brazil scientists seek to unravel mystery of Zika twins
SAO PAULO | BY NACHO DOCE AND PABLO GARCIA
Scientists struggling to unravel the mysteries of a Zika epidemic in Brazil hope they can learn from cases of women giving birth to twins in which only one child is afflicted by the microcephaly birth defect associated with the virus.
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A team from Sao Paulo University studying the five cases believes they may hold clues to the nature of the disease itself and hope to have results from their investigation in a year's time.
"The importance of these twins... is that they could give us some very important answers," said Mayana Zatz, director of the Human Genome Research Center at the university.
"How can we explain that one of the twins was not affected: did they have a gene that protected them? Do they have a different genome that disposes them to the infection or not?"
Recent studies have shown evidence of Zika in amniotic fluid, placenta and fetal brain tissue. Zatz said the placenta of one twin may be permeable to Zika, while the other may not, barring the virus from attacking the fetus.
Another possibility is that the virus penetrates both placentas but that the neurons of one baby are resistant, while the other's are not.
"The third possibility that we want to investigate is that certain genes predispose the child to microcephaly, and they are altered by the presence of the Zika virus," Zatz said, noting that around 15 genes are believed to govern microcephaly.
(Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Mary Milliken)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-twins-idUSKCN0XX1V2
Brazil scientists seek to unravel mystery of Zika twins
SAO PAULO | BY NACHO DOCE AND PABLO GARCIA
Scientists struggling to unravel the mysteries of a Zika epidemic in Brazil hope they can learn from cases of women giving birth to twins in which only one child is afflicted by the microcephaly birth defect associated with the virus.
...
A team from Sao Paulo University studying the five cases believes they may hold clues to the nature of the disease itself and hope to have results from their investigation in a year's time.
"The importance of these twins... is that they could give us some very important answers," said Mayana Zatz, director of the Human Genome Research Center at the university.
"How can we explain that one of the twins was not affected: did they have a gene that protected them? Do they have a different genome that disposes them to the infection or not?"
Recent studies have shown evidence of Zika in amniotic fluid, placenta and fetal brain tissue. Zatz said the placenta of one twin may be permeable to Zika, while the other may not, barring the virus from attacking the fetus.
Another possibility is that the virus penetrates both placentas but that the neurons of one baby are resistant, while the other's are not.
"The third possibility that we want to investigate is that certain genes predispose the child to microcephaly, and they are altered by the presence of the Zika virus," Zatz said, noting that around 15 genes are believed to govern microcephaly.
(Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Mary Milliken)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-twins-idUSKCN0XX1V2