TITLE:
Zika Virus and Its Association with Neurological Disorders
AUTHORS:
Dama Faniriantsoa Henrio Marcellin, Limin Guo, Haiyang Yu, Shuchao Wang, Paul Pielnaa, Adonira Saro, Ismail Bilal Masokano, Malik Muhammad Adil, Ling Yuan, Yanxia Huang, Deyang Cai, Ruping Zheng, Zhongjun Huang, Aixiang Luo, Cyrollah Disoma, Pinjia Liu, Zanxian Xia, Jufang Huang
KEYWORDS:
Zika Virus (ZIKV), Microcephaly, Guillain Barré Syndrome, Epilepsy, Neurological Disorders
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Microbiology,
Vol.12 No.4,
April
18,
2022
ABSTRACT: Zika virus (ZIKV) is a flavivirus that can be identified as a small envelope with a positive-stranded RNA and an important medical pathogen, which causes deadly human diseases. The virus is carried by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes through a blood meal and it is also spread through body fluids. ZIKV infection may present with symptoms like fever, myalgia, maculopapular rash as well as neurological sequelae, which include, microcephaly, epilepsy, and Guillain Barré syndrome (GBS). This put the virus on a scale of the public health burden of almost 87 countries. The potential threat of ZIKV infection is not completely eradicated in many countries in Africa, America, and the Western Pacific regions. There are no vaccines and treatments available to date. Since ZIKV causes microcephaly in utero by targeting neural progenitor cells, inducing apoptosis, and impairing neurodevelopment, this article hopes to evaluate the neurological disorders associated with the Zika virus infection while elucidating the current trends in the development of vaccines and drugs.