Cognitive, Socioaffective, and Neural Development Following Fetal Zika Virus Infection

项目总结/摘要 在最极端的情况下，胎儿寨卡病毒感染会导致小头畸形--胎儿大脑的显著萎缩 还有头骨越来越多的证据表明，小头畸形症只是胎儿寨卡病毒的一种可能结果。 然而，感染，以及出生时头部大小正常的婴儿可能具有重要的中枢神经系统 病理这种病理学的长期后果尚不清楚，留下了一种可能性， 由于认知和社会情感处理受损而导致的继发性流行病， 在流行病时期出生的婴儿。拟议的工作迈出了理解的第一步， 通过绘制一组非人类的认知和社会情感， 作为胎儿的感染寨卡病毒的灵长类动物和一组程序匹配的未感染对照。我们将 评估母体和胎儿病毒血症对认知、社会情感和神经系统的影响程度 结果。由于猕猴的发育速度大约是人类的四倍，我们将能够 前瞻性地模拟出现的病理-也就是说，我们将能够预测人类婴儿的病理， 在2015-2016年疫情期间感染寨卡病毒的人，在成长过程中都会经历。发育 这种建模对于开发有效的干预和治疗方法以鼓励健康至关重要。 发展和改善精神病理学。

Project Summary/Abstract At its most extreme, fetal Zika virus infection causes microcephaly – the significant shrinking of the fetal brain and skull. Accumulating evidence suggests that microcephaly is just one possible outcome of fetal Zika virus infection, however, and that babies born with normal sized heads may have significant central nervous system pathology. The long-term consequences of this pathology are unknown, leaving open the possibility of a secondary epidemic resulting from compromised cognition and socioaffective processing that will occur as babies born during the epidemic age. The proposed work takes the first step in developing an understanding of the consequences of this pathology by mapping the cognitive and socioaffective of a cohort of nonhuman primates infected with Zika virus as fetuses and a group of procedure matched, non-infected controls. We will evaluate the extent to which maternal and fetal viremia influences cognitive, socioaffective, and neurological outcomes. Because macaques develop approximately four times faster than humans, we will be able to prospectively model pathology that arises – that is, we will be able to predict what pathology human babies, infected with Zika virus during the 2015-2016 epidemic, will experience as they grow up. Developmental modeling of this sort is critical for developing effective interventions and treatments to encourage healthy development and ameliorate psychopathology.