Fetal demise and failed antibody therapy during Zika virus infection of pregnant macaques.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29691387.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-04056-4 and PMC identifier 5915455.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Zika virus (ZIKV) infection of pregnant women is associated with pathologic complications of fetal development. Here, we infect pregnant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) with a minimally passaged ZIKV isolate from Rio de Janeiro, where a high rate of fetal development complications was observed. The infection of pregnant macaques with this virus results in maternal viremia, virus crossing into the amniotic fluid (AF), and in utero fetal deaths. We also treated three additional ZIKV-infected pregnant macaques with a cocktail of ZIKV-neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies (nmAbs) at peak viremia. While the nmAbs can be effective in clearing the virus from the maternal sera of treated monkeys, it is not sufficient to clear ZIKV from AF. Our report suggests that ZIKV from Brazil causes fetal demise in non-human primates (NHPs) without additional mutations or confounding co-factors. Treatment with a neutralizing anti-ZIKV nmAb cocktail is insufficient to fully stop vertical transmission.
Medical subject headings
- Antibodies, Viral
- Pregnancy Complications
- Zika Virus
- Zika Virus Infection