Searching across hundreds of databases

Our searching services are busy right now. Your search will reload in five seconds.

X
Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

X
Forgot Password

If you have forgotten your password you can enter your email here and get a temporary password sent to your email.

Vertical transmission of African-lineage Zika virus through the fetal membranes in a rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) model.

PLoS pathogens | 2023

Zika virus (ZIKV) can be transmitted vertically from mother to fetus during pregnancy, resulting in a range of outcomes including severe birth defects and fetal/infant death. Potential pathways of vertical transmission in utero have been proposed but remain undefined. Identifying the timing and routes of vertical transmission of ZIKV may help us identify when interventions would be most effective. Furthermore, understanding what barriers ZIKV overcomes to effect vertical transmission may help improve models for evaluating infection by other pathogens during pregnancy. To determine the pathways of vertical transmission, we inoculated 12 pregnant rhesus macaques with an African-lineage ZIKV at gestational day 30 (term is 165 days). Eight pregnancies were surgically terminated at either seven or 14 days post-maternal infection. Maternal-fetal interface and fetal tissues and fluids were collected and evaluated for ZIKV using RT-qPCR, in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, and plaque assays. Four additional pregnant macaques were inoculated and terminally perfused with 4% paraformaldehyde at three, six, nine, or ten days post-maternal inoculation. For these four cases, the entire fixed pregnant uterus was evaluated with in situ hybridization for ZIKV RNA. We determined that ZIKV can reach the MFI by six days after infection and infect the fetus by ten days. Infection of the chorionic membrane and the extraembryonic coelomic fluid preceded infection of the fetus and the mesenchymal tissue of the placental villi. We did not find evidence to support a transplacental route of ZIKV vertical transmission via infection of syncytiotrophoblasts or villous cytotrophoblasts. The pattern of infection observed in the maternal-fetal interface provides evidence of paraplacental vertical ZIKV transmission through the chorionic membrane, the outer layer of the fetal membranes.

Pubmed ID: 37549143 RIS Download

Research resources used in this publication

None found

Antibodies used in this publication

None found

Associated grants

  • Agency: NCI NIH HHS, United States
    Id: P30 CA014520
  • Agency: NIH HHS, United States
    Id: S10 OD023526
  • Agency: NIGMS NIH HHS, United States
    Id: T32 GM135119
  • Agency: NIH HHS, United States
    Id: P51 OD011106
  • Agency: NIAID NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01 AI132519
  • Agency: NIAID NIH HHS, United States
    Id: R01 AI132563

Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.

This is a list of tools and resources that we have found mentioned in this publication.


GenBank (tool)

RRID:SCR_002760

NIH genetic sequence database that provides annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences for almost 280 000 formally described species (Jan 2014) .These sequences are obtained primarily through submissions from individual laboratories and batch submissions from large-scale sequencing projects, including whole-genome shotgun (WGS) and environmental sampling projects. Most submissions are made using web-based BankIt or standalone Sequin programs, and GenBank staff assigns accession numbers upon data receipt. It is part of International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration and daily data exchange with European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) and DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) ensures worldwide coverage. GenBank is accessible through NCBI Entrez retrieval system, which integrates data from major DNA and protein sequence databases along with taxonomy, genome, mapping, protein structure and domain information, and biomedical journal literature via PubMed. BLAST provides sequence similarity searches of GenBank and other sequence databases. Complete bimonthly releases and daily updates of GenBank database are available by FTP.

View all literature mentions

Fisher BioReagents (tool)

RRID:SCR_003374

An Antibody supplier

View all literature mentions

Promega (tool)

RRID:SCR_006724

An Antibody supplier

View all literature mentions

Thermo Fisher Scientific (tool)

RRID:SCR_008452

Commercial vendor and service provider of laboratory reagents and antibodies. Supplier of scientific instrumentation, reagents and consumables, and software services.

View all literature mentions

Sigma-Aldrich (tool)

RRID:SCR_008988

American chemical, life science and biotechnology company owned by Merck KGaA. Merger of Sigma Chemical Company and Aldrich Chemical Company. Provides organic and inorganic chemicals, building blocks, reagents, advanced materials and stable isotopes for chemical synthesis, medicinal chemistry and materials science, antibiotics, buffers, carbohydrates, enzymes, forensic tools, hematology and histology, nucleotides, proteins, peptides, amino acids and their derivatives.

View all literature mentions

MP Biomedicals (tool)

RRID:SCR_013308

An Antibody supplier

View all literature mentions

Adobe Photoshop (tool)

RRID:SCR_014199

Software for image processing, analysis, and editing. The software includes features such as touch capabilities, a customizable toolbar, 2D and 3D image merging, and Cloud access and options.

View all literature mentions