Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Virol. Nov 12, 2016; 5(4): 135-143
Published online Nov 12, 2016. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v5.i4.135
Neurological manifestations of Zika virus infection
Ana-Belén Blázquez, Juan-Carlos Saiz
Ana-Belén Blázquez, Juan-Carlos Saiz, Department of Biotechnology, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Author contributions: Both authors contributed equally to this article.
Supported by Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA), No. ZIKA-BIO-2016-01.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors report no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Juan-Carlos Saiz, PhD, Department of Biotechnology, Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria, Ctra. Coruña Km. 7.500, 28040 Madrid, Spain. jcsaiz@inia.es
Telephone: +34-9-13478770 Fax: +34-9-13471462
Received: April 8, 2016
Peer-review started: April 12, 2016
First decision: June 12, 2016
Revised: June 29, 2016
Accepted: August 11, 2016
Article in press: August 15, 2016
Published online: November 12, 2016
Processing time: 214 Days and 15.6 Hours
Abstract

Zika virus (ZIKV) is a flavivirus (Flaviviridae family) transmitted mainly by Aedes mosquitoes. The virus was restricted to the African continent until its spread to south-east Asia in the 1980’s, the Micronesia in 2007, the French Polynesia in 2013 and, more recently in the Americas in 2015, where, up to date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated about 3-4 million total cases of ZIKV infection. During outbreaks in the French Polynesia and Brazil in 2013 and 2015, respectively, national health authorities reported potential neurological complications of ZIKV disease, chiefly an upsurge in Guillain-Barré syndrome, which coincided with ZIKV outbreaks. On the other hand, the emergence of ZIKV in Brazil has been associated with a striking increase in the number of reported cases of microcephaly in fetus and newborns, twenty times higher than in that reported in previous years. While investigations are currently assessing whether there is an actual association between neurological complications and ZIKV infections, the evidence was enough worrisome for WHO to declare a public health emergency of international concern. Here we present an updated review addressing what is currently known about the possible association between ZIKV infection and the development of severe neurological disorders.

Keywords: Zika virus; Flavivirus; Microcephaly; Guillain-Barré syndrome; Transmission routes

Core tip: Zika virus (ZIKV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus, was restricted to Africa until its spread to south-east Asia, the Pacific, and, finally, to the Americas, where an estimated 4 million cases of ZIKV infection have been recorded, and where a worrisome possible association of ZIKV with the development of severe neurological disorders, such as Guillain-Barré Syndrome and microcephaly, have been reported. In this contribution we present an updated review addressing what is currently known about the possible association between ZIKV infection and the development of severe neurological disorders, remarking the urgent need for further investigations to clearly resolve this point.