标题: Science：我国科学家证实寨卡病毒单个突变致小头症 [打印本页] 作者: ipsvirus 时间: 2017-10-4 17:07 标题: Science：我国科学家证实寨卡病毒单个突变致小头症 在一项新的研究中，来自中国科学院、北京微生物流行病研究所、安徽医科大学和泰山医学院的研究人员报道，寨卡病毒已经存在了几十年，但直到最近才开始导致出生缺陷，这是因为这种蚊媒病毒可能在2013年获得一种突变。相关研究结果于2017年9月28日在线发表在Science期刊上，论文标题为“A single mutation in the prM protein of Zika virus contributes to fetal microcephaly”。
Zika virus (ZIKV) has evolved into a global health threat due to its unexpected causal link to microcephaly. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that contemporary epidemic strains have accumulated multiple substitutions from their Asian ancestor. Here, we show that a single serine to asparagine substitution (S139N) in the viral polyprotein substantially increased ZIKV infectivity in both human and mouse neural progenitor cells (NPCs), led to more significant microcephaly in the mouse fetus, and higher mortality in neonatal mice. Evolutionary analysis indicates that the S139N substitution arose before the 2013 outbreak in French Polynesia and has been stably maintained during subsequent spread to the Americas. This functional adaption makes ZIKV more virulent to human NPCs, thus contributing to the increased incidence of microcephaly in recent ZIKV epidemics.