In situ inflammasome activation results in severe damage to the central nervous system in fatal Zika virus microcephaly cases

• Autor(a) principal: Sousa, Jorge Rodrigues de
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Azevedo, Raimunda do Socorro da Silva, Martins Filho, Arnaldo Jorge, Araújo, Marialva Tereza Ferreira de, Cruz, Ermelinda do Rosário Moutinho, Vasconcelos, Barbara Cristina Baldez, Cruz, Ana Cecília Ribeiro, Oliveira, Consuelo Silva de, Martins, Lívia Caricio, Vasconcelos, Beatriz Helena Baldez, Casseb, Lívia Medeiros Neves, Chiang, Jannifer Oliveira, Quaresma, Juarez Antônio Simões, Vasconcelos, Pedro Fernando da Costa
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Digital do Instituto Evandro Chagas (Patuá)
• Texto Completo: http://patua.iec.gov.br//handle/iec/3521
• topic: Zika virus / patogenicidade; Infecção pelo Zika virus / patologia; Microcefalia / mortalidade; Infecções por Flavivirus; Sistema Nervoso Central / anormalidades; Complexos Multiproteicos; Inflamassomos / genética; Piroptose / genética; Apoptose / genética; Córtex Cerebral / lesões

Zika virus (ZIKV) has caused substantial concern worldwide owing to its association with severe birth defects, such as microcephaly and other congenital malformations. Inflammasomes, i.e., multi-protein complexes that induce inflammation and pyroptosis, are predicted to contribute to the immune response to this flavivirus. Accordingly, in this study, the in situ inflammasome response was evaluated in fatal cases of ZIKV-linked microcephaly. Brain tissue samples were collected from eight babies, including four ZIKV-positive microcephalic neonates who died after birth and four flavivirus-negative neonatal controls who died of other causes and whose central nervous system (CNS) architecture was preserved. In the ZIKV-positive newborn/stillbirth babies, the major histopathological alterations included atrophy of the cortical layer, a predominance of mononuclear cell infiltration in the Virchow-Robin space, neuronal necrosis, vacuolization and neuronal degeneration, neuronophagy, and gliosis. An immunohistochemical analysis of tissues in the neural parenchyma showed significantly higher expression of the receptors NLRP1, NLRP3, and AIM2, cytokines IL-1β, IL-18, and IL-33, and enzymes caspase 1, iNOS, and arginase 1 in ZIKV-positive microcephaly cases than in flavivirus-negative controls. These results suggest that inflammasome activation can aggravate the neuroinflammatory response and consequently increase CNS damage in neonates with fetal neural ZIKV infection and microcephaly.