Sentences with phrase «studied microcephaly»

Not exact matches

The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, was requested by the Brazilian health ministry to investigate the causes of the microcephaly epidemic that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an international public health emergency earlier this year.

Earlier on Friday, U.S. health officials published a study estimating that as many as 270 babies in Puerto Rico may be born with the severe birth defect known as microcephaly caused by Zika infections in their mothers during pregnancy.

She said Brazil had registered more than 4,700 suspected cases of microcephaly and a quarter was only studied for the moment.

As most studies have only carefully examined infants with presumed or confirmed congenital ZIKV infection who have microcephaly, more studies are needed to understand ocular findings in those infants with congenital ZIKV infection without microcephaly.

In a study conducted in Brazil, 70 infants with microcephaly were examined at CAVIVER, a nongovernmental organization clinic and referral center dedicated to visually disabled children in Fortaleza.

A 2006 study of 77 pregnant women infected with West Nile virus reported that two had infants with microcephaly, the birth defect lately associated with Zika that results in unusually small and damaged brains.

This finding paves the way to study whether p53 inhibitors could provide the basis of a future treatment to prevent microcephaly.

Researchers at IRB Barcelona study CEP63, a gene that is mutated in Seckel Syndrome, a rare disease that causes microcephaly and growth defects.

Among the 42 Zika - infected women in the study, 12 were carrying fetuses with severe abnormalities, including absence or withering of brain structures, tissue death, restricted growth and, in one case, microcephaly.

That study showed a change in a pre-membrane protein could cause microcephaly; the Nebraska study showed how glycosylation of the envelope protein may contribute to the virus efficiently gaining entry into the brain.

While the mouse study does not prove a direct connection between Zika infection and microcephaly, Rossi said, it does underscore the urgent need for effective animal models to further study the course of disease and its transmission.

The research team reported that evidence of microcephaly and related skull abnormalities was present in 70 percent of the infants studied, though often it was subtle.

While this study does not prove the direct link between Zika and microcephaly, it does pinpoint where the virus may be doing the most damage.

Data from the Brazilian metropolis have confirmed this suspicion and, together with other studies, enable the researchers to estimate the absolute risk of microcephaly upon infection of the mother during pregnancy: approximately one out of 100 mothers infected during early pregnancy will bear a child with microcephaly.

The approach enabled a wide range of studies of human brain development, including implicating a new class of neural stem cell recently discovered by the lab in the evolutionary expansion of the human brain and identifying how the mosquito - borne Zika virus may contribute to microcephaly in infants infected in utero.

These findings may correlate with disrupted brain development, but direct evidence for a link between Zika virus and microcephaly is more likely to come from clinical studies, the researchers say.

The study comes in the wake of an ongoing Zika epidemic and an explosion of cases involving fetal death, microcephaly (born with severely decreased head size), and other congenital birth defects.

Espinal detailed several studies underway, including a study in Brazil that will reveal information in April about children with microcephaly in the state of Pernambuco and cohort studies in Colombia are currently following 2,000 pregnant women infected with Zika virus.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge studied a variety of cell lines, including human neural stem cells, to investigate how Zika virus infection can lead to microcephaly.

Satuation of the environment with pesticides, including the drinking water, in this particular area of northeastern Brazil needs to be studied as a cause of microcephaly as well:

«While this study doesn't definitely prove that Zika virus causes microcephaly, it's very telling that the cells that form the cortex are potentially susceptible to the virus, and their growth could be disrupted by the virus.»

Studying a new type of pinhead - size, lab - grown brain made with technology first suggested by three high school students, Johns Hopkins researchers have confirmed a key way in which Zika virus causes microcephaly and other damage in fetal brains: by infecting specialized stem cells that build its outer layer, the cortex.

«Studies of fetuses and babies with the telltale small brains and heads of microcephaly in Zika - affected areas have found abnormalities in the cortex, and Zika virus has been found in the fetal tissue,» says Guo - li Ming, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of neurology, neuroscience, and psychiatry and behavioral science at Johns Hopkins» Institute for Cell Engineering.

He said researchers have undertaken studies to answer some of those questions in Brazil, where the number of microcephaly cases is highest.

Such techniques have the potential to enhance research into the origins of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders such as microcephaly, lissencephaly, autism and schizophrenia, which are thought to affect cell types not found in the mouse models that are often used to study such diseases.

«It strengthens the case that Zika is a culprit behind microcephaly,» said Joseph Gleeson, an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, who was not involved in the study.

The studies add to the understanding of how the virus appears to be linked to the thousands of babies in Brazil who are being born with microcephaly, a condition marked by an abnormally small head and that appear to be accompanied by brain defects in many cases related to Zika.

Researchers said studies are still needed to definitively prove the link between Zika and microcephaly.

Future studies of these cells are expected to shed light on developmental diseases such as autism and schizophrenia and malformations of brain development, including microcephaly, lissencephaly and neuronal migration disorders, they say, as well as age - related illnesses, such as Alzheimer's disease.

This prospective study was conducted in Campina Grande, the second largest city in the state of Paraíba, which has reported the second highest prevalence of microcephaly at birth in Brazil.

Structural eye anomalies (in particular, microphthalmia and coloboma), cataracts, intraocular calcifications, and posterior ocular findings have been reported in infants with presumed and laboratory - confirmed prenatal ZIKV infection; however, posterior findings have been the most prevalent.21,25,28,33,35,36,41 - 43 Case series report chorioretinal atrophy, focal pigmentary mottling of the retina, and optic nerve atrophy / anomalies.28, 34,37,41 - 43,55 Series of 20 or more infants with presumed ZIKV - associated microcephaly report ocular findings in 24 % to 55 %.28, 33,42 In one study, testing for ZIKV IgM was performed in 24 of 40 infants (60 %) with microcephaly and the results were positive in the cerebrospinal fluid in 100 % of those tested.42 The proportion of infants with ocular lesions did not differ in those with and without testing.42 In that series, first trimester maternal infection and smaller head circumference significantly correlated with the presence of abnormal ocular findings.42

In their follow up modelling study they reported Zika virus infection during the first trimester of pregnancy led to higher than expected rates of microcephaly.

«Another issue that the study helps clarify is whether or not any of the recent evolutionary changes in Zika virus are to blame for microcephaly.

«We are also launching further studies to determine whether children who have microcephaly born to mothers infected by the Zika virus is the tip of the iceberg of what we could see in damaging effects on the brain and other developmental problems.»

Understanding Zika's mechanisms will illuminate how viral infection leads to birth defects such as microcephaly, a condition marked by an abnormally small head and brain size, and could inform the development of therapies and vaccines, the study authors said.

s many as 6 percent of children born with Zika - induced microcephaly may have hearing loss, a new study from Brazil suggests.

«The emergence of Zika virus in the Americas has coincided with increased reports of babies born with microcephaly,» said study author Dr. Heron Werner Jr., of the radiology department at Rio de Janeiro's Clinica de Diagnostico por Imagem.

The virus is proven to cause the birth defect microcephaly, and other recent studies have shown the virus is also responsible for vision problems and other serious brain damage.

To see the alternative story about Zika infections, Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, did some studies on Brazilian populations with a high incidence of microcephaly and did find that the incidences of microcephaly corresponded more with environmental toxins.