Zika Virus: Origins, Pathological Action, and Treatment Strategies
Open Access
- 7 January 2019
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Microbiology
- Vol. 9, 3252
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2018.03252
Abstract
The Zika virus (ZIKV) global epidemic prompted the World Health Organization to declare it a 2016 Public Health Emergency of International Concern. The overwhelming experience over the past several years teaches us that ZIKV and the associated neurological complications represent a long-term world-wide challenge to public health. Although the number of ZIKV cases in the Western Hemisphere has dropped since 2016, the need for basic research and anti-ZIKV drug development remains strong. Re-emerging viruses like ZIKV are an ever-present threat in the 21st century where fast transcontinental travel lends itself to viral epidemics. Here, we first present the origin story for ZIKV and review the rapid progress researchers have made toward understanding of the ZIKV pathology and in the design, re-purposing, and testing–particularly in vivo–drug candidates for ZIKV prophylaxis and therapy ZIKV. Quite remarkably, a short, but intensive, drug-repurposing effort has already resulted in several readily available FDA-approved drugs that are capable of effectively combating the virus in infected adult mouse models and, most importantly, in both preventing maternal-fetal transmission and severe microcephaly in newborns in pregnant mouse models.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Institutes of Health
This publication has 166 references indexed in Scilit:
- Aedes hensilli as a Potential Vector of Chikungunya and Zika VirusesPLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2014
- Rapid spread of emerging Zika virus in the Pacific areaClinical Microbiology & Infection, 2014
- Zika Virus, French Polynesia, South Pacific, 2013Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2014
- Zika Virus in Gabon (Central Africa) – 2007: A New Threat from Aedes albopictus?PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2014
- Modeling of Human Cytomegalovirus Maternal-Fetal Transmission in a Novel Decidual Organ CultureJournal of Virology, 2011
- Virtual Ligand Screening of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Compound Library Leads to the Allosteric Inhibitory Scaffolds of the West Nile Virus NS3 ProteinaseASSAY and Drug Development Technologies, 2011
- Zika Virus Outbreak on Yap Island, Federated States of MicronesiaThe New England Journal of Medicine, 2009
- Insights into RNA unwinding and ATP hydrolysis by the flavivirus NS3 proteinThe EMBO Journal, 2008
- Flavivirus EncephalitisThe New England Journal of Medicine, 2004
- Zika Virus (I). Isolations and serological specificityTransactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 1952