Now in our 13th year of bringing you beautiful imagery from biomedical science every day

Search the archive of over 4000 images

Zika's Modus Operandi

Inflammation likely underlies disturbance in brain development in Zika-infected foetuses

25 March 2022

Zika's Modus Operandi

It’s 1947, Uganda, and a monkey named 766, living at the Yellow Fever Research Institute, is sick with a fever. He has an unknown infection, which researchers will soon name Zika virus (ZIKV). Fast forward to 2015 and a ZIKV epidemic has taken hold in the Americas, causing the foetuses of infected pregnant women to suffer brain damage and develop smaller brains than normal (microcephaly). Researchers now investigate the effects of ZIKV infection on the foetal brains of rhesus monkeys. Fluorescent microscopy of foetal brains (pictured) revealed signs of inflammation in infected regions, specifically high numbers of immune cells called activated microglia (red), as well as increased cell death of immature neurons alongside increased markers of phagocytosis (orange), a process that occurs to clean up dead cells. This reveals that inflammation likely plays an important role in disturbing the brain development of foetuses infected with ZIKV.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Search The Archive

Submit An Image

Follow on Tumblr

Follow on Instagram

What is BPoD?

BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

Read More

BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.