Understanding Zika

It’s relatively harmless to most of us, but can be devastating to pregnant women. Zika virus has sparked worldwide fear by causing birth defects in children. For example, the mosquito-borne menace can cause microcephaly: babies with abnormally small heads, usually housing incompletely-formed brains. Exactly why the virus takes hold in the brains of vulnerable children before they’ve even been born was something of a mystery, but new research is pointing towards an explanation: Zika binds to a particular protein in the developing brain called Musashi 1 (red in the human embryo brain pictured 10 weeks after conception). Musashi 1 is very common in the budding brain and is normally a starting point for new brain cells. When Zika hones in and latches on, it commandeers Musashi 1’s skills to help replicate itself, growing ever-stronger at the expense of its host, depriving the brain of a crucial construction tool.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image by Michael S. Nahorski, Cambridge Institute for Medical Research
• Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre, University of Cambridge, UK
• Image reprinted with permission from the AAAS - the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Published in Science, July 2017