Zika Might Have Impact on Adult Brains Similar to Lead Poisoning
If you’re like me, you may have assumed you were out of the woods when it came to the Zika virus. I’m not pregnant and I don’t plan on (ever) getting pregnant, so I figured this was one concern I could cross off the list. Well I might have to rethink things because it turns out Zika virus might not be so benign to adult brains after all.
We already know that Zika can cause sever birth defects such as microcephaly when a pregnant woman is infected. The Zika virus seems to mostly target brain and neurological development– which is devastating for developing babies.
For adults, it seemed like the worst we would have to deal with is a really bad fever and joint pain for a week. Even younger children were expected to rebound from an infection pretty quickly with little to no long-lasting damage.
Related: SocialUnderground Zika Coverage
But new research shows that adult brains might be more vulnerable to the virus than previously thought. Researchers at Rockefeller University have been testing using mice to test the virus’s effects. The evidence suggests that if Zika can infect neural progenitor cells in unborn babies, then there isn’t reason why it can’t infect neural progenitor cells in adult brains. “We asked whether [the brain cells] were vulnerable to Zika in the same way the fetal brain is,” Professor Joseph Glesson said. “The answer is definitely yes.”
So what would the symptoms be? Well, eerily similar to lead poisoning. An adult Zika infection could damage the brains ability to regenerate itself; eventually leading to behavior problems, depression, Alzheimer’s, decreased cognitive ability, and any range of neurological conditions. Granted, this study only tested one group of mice one time, but the scientists behind it were not optimistic about the results.
It’s already been demonstrated that Zika is “strongly associated” with Guillain-Barré Syndrome: a disorder that causes the body’s immune system to attack the central nervous system resulting in temporary or permanent paralysis. It’s a pretty rare, but it’s a condition that children and adults aren’t immune to.
We really don’t know much about how Zika works yet, so pretty much anything is possible at this point. But the best we can do is fund research for it and hopefully develop some type of treatment or vaccination.
Follow Randi Nord on TWITTER
Randi Nord lives in Pontiac, Michigan. She is a journalist for the The Fifth Column, co-founder of Geopolitics Alert, and co-hosts a podcast about geopolitics.