Evidence is mounting that Zika virus is neurotropic (able to infect cells of the nervous system) and neurovirulent (causes disease of the nervous system) in humans. The most recent evidence comes from a case report of an 81 year old French man who developed meninogoencephalitis 10 days after returning from ...

Data from several clinical studies in Brazil establish a strong link between infection of pregnant women with Zika virus and a variety of birth defects collectively called congenital Zika syndrome. In the latest study conducted in Rio de Janeiro, the authors enrolled 88 pregnant women who had a rash in the previous 5 days. ...

On episode #379 of the science show This Week in Virology, Scott Tibbetts joins the TWiVirate to describe his work on the role of a herpesviral nocoding RNA in establishment of peripheral latency, and then we visit two last minute additions to the Zika virus literature. You can find TWiV #379 at microbe.tv/twiv, or ...

A small molecule antiviral compound has been shown to protect rhesus monkeys against lethal Ebolavirus disease, even when given up to three days after virus inoculation. The compound, called GS-5734, is a nucleoside analog. After uptake into cells, GS-5734 is converted to a nucleoside triphosphate (illustrated, bottom panel) which is incorporated by ...

On episode #378 of the science show This Week in Virology, Greg Smith joins the TWiVirate to reveal how his lab discovered a switch that controls herpesvirus neuroinvasion, and then we visit the week's news about Zika virus. You can find TWiV #378 at microbe.tv/twiv, or you may listen below. [powerpress url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/twiv/TWiV378.mp3"] ...