Zika has been a major discussion in the past couple of
months due it its enormous possibility of becoming a pandemic. The disease,
spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, causes microcephaly in
newborns. Microcephaly is a damaging condition in which the baby is born with
an abnormally small head and underdeveloped brain.
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| Visual depiction of an infant with Microcephaly |
Scientists may have found a possible
treatment to fight against
Zika in babies. Researchers discovered that the virus disrupts pTBK1, which is
a protein that helps spur cell division in the growing brain. The Zika virus
causes the deaths of the cells that are imperative in the formation of the
brain. The virus also targets neural stem cells which divide into important
nervous system cells. “Armed with this new understanding, the researchers
decided to test out a few existing antiviral treatments. Some of these treatments
were ineffective… Others made the infection worse, but two managed to stop the
replication of Zika virus cells…” (Rogers). One of the successful treatments is
an FDA-approved druf used to treat Hepatitis C. called Sofosbuvir. This looks
very promising, but there still needs to be many weeks of testing before a
cemented treatment for Zika is established. “To be succinct: Sofosbuvir is not,
at the present, a medication that people currently facing Zika should use,”
Marco Onorati, neuroscientist at Yale says. This is due to the fact that the
drug has not been studied in pregnant women, and scientists do not know what
effect it could have on the development of the fetus. Because of this discovery,
researchers now have a better chance in finding a treatment that will work
against the virus and also the development of a vaccine to prevent future
infections and outbreaks.
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