Biosecurity

Study Suggests Zika May Damage Adult Brains

It’s known that Zika can cause brain damage in the fetuses of infected pregnant women. Now a new study suggests the virus also may be able to harm the brains of some adults.

Scientists at the Rockefeller University and the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology infected adult mice with Zika and watched the virus zero in on and damage cells that are important in their brains to memory and learning, much in the same way researchers have documented how it attacks and kills cells critical to fetal brain development. The research was published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell.