When Zika virus plays with the Trojan horse concept, invasion is guaranteed!

Raphaël Gaudin publishes his work in Nature Communications (IF=11.9). The work performed in the Raphaël Gaudin’s team at the IRIM brought to light the capacity of the virus to hide in monocytes and force them to migrate toward the brain in order to facilitate its passage through this impermeable barrier.

To reach these conclusions, the researchers had to develop an original hybrid model to visualize in real time and in 3D the fluorescent blood vessels of a zebrafish embryo infected with Zika virus infected human monocytes. These results provide novel avenues of research for the development of strategies that would inhibit the migration of monocytes to the brain and thus, prevent the appearance of virus-induced neurological pathologies.